Friends
Stocks got off to a rough start this morning adding to yesterday’s difficulties, but the Fed minutes release at 1:00 seemed to encourage the bulls to do some buying. The minutes indicated that the Fed is comfortable with inflation nearing the 2% level, and might tolerate a slightly higher number. Nevertheless, a rate hike in June appears to still be on the table. I’m not exactly sure what the bulls found to their liking, but stocks did erase the earlier in the day losses.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 52 points to finish the day at 24,886. The S&P 500 was up 8 points to close at 2,733. Gold was up $1 to trade at $1,293 per ounce, while oil was down $.45 to trade at $71.75 per barrel WTI.
As mentioned yesterday, we seem to be trapped in a trading range for stocks. There has been plenty of movement in the markets this year but at the moment, though up a couple of percent the bulls still see stocks down 5% from the January highs. On the other hand, the bears did see that January bubble burst, but when all is said and done, they are on the losing side of the ledger at the moment year to date. Point being, both the bulls and the bears are fighting for position, but neither seems to be able to get the upper hand.
Have a nice evening everyone.
