Friends
Stocks has a difficult day led by the shares of Facebook which had a very difficult day as a result of news that their platform is mined for information that can be used in questionable ways. Feel free to review various published stories on the subject, but the gist of it all is that companies like Facebook and Google are likely to come under much more scrutiny with regards to how they mine information and who has access to that information.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 335 points to finish the day at 24,610. The S&P 500 was down 39 points to close at 2,712. Gold was up $4 to trade at $1,316 per ounce, while oil was down $.19 to trade at $62.15 per barrel WTI.
The FOMC meeting begins tomorrow and we still feel it is likely that we get a quarter point rate hike announced Wednesday afternoon. If the Fed is, indeed, going to raise rates 3 or 4 times this year, this meeting would almost surely require the first rate hike of the year. As for stocks, it feels like we are developing quite a trading range. We seem to run into resistance when we get near the old highs and buyers have been appearing when we test the lows. Let’s see how this week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
