Friends
Stocks coasted into the end of the quarter on fumes, as the political events of the past couple of days seems to have distracted traders away from the markets. Since the Fed move on Wednesday, there hasn’t been any real catalyst to excite the bulls or the bears.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 18 points to finish the day at 26,458. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged closing at 2,913. Gold was up $8 to trade at $1,196 per ounce, while oil was up $1.29 to trade at $73.41 per barrel WTI.
Despite all of the hand wringing, it was a good quarter for stocks. The old “sell in May and go away” sure wasn’t sound advice this year as stocks spent the summer climbing back to the highs that had been established in late January. We go into the 4th quarter with a good economy, and the coming earnings season should be strong as have been the first two quarters of the year. Seasonally, September is often a difficult month for stocks, but again, this was not the case this year. Of course, we have an election coming up in this coming quarter, and the political scene could not be more heated. Recently, the markets have shrugged off political headlines time after time. Will the markets remain as sanguine as the mid-term elections draw near? Well, buckle up and we’ll keep you informed as the 4th quarter of 2018 unfolds.
Have a great weekend everyone.
