Friends
Stocks continued to climb higher during another muted trading session as traders await the State of the Union address tonight. Alphabet’s earnings seemed to disappoint after the close yesterday, but after some spending the morning in the red, the shares climb to actually show a gain by the close. We get Disney’s numbers after the close today.
As for the markets, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 172 points to finish the day at 25,411. The S&P 500 was up 12 points to close at 2,737. Gold was down $1 to trade at $1,318 per ounce, while oil was down $.85 to trade at $53.71 per barrel WTI.
Stocks have recovered a good portion of the 4th quarter 2018 selloff/bear market. We thought there would be a good chance that the Christmas Eve lows would have to be tested to be sure that the bear market was behind us, but at this moment those concerns seem to be misplaced. The Fed has softened its stance and corporate earnings appear to be ok. At about 16-17 times this year’s earnings estimate for the S&P, stocks appear to be fairly valued at this point. Are we off to challenge last year’s highs, or will we have to correct the overbought levels the we find ourselves in at the moment? It would appear we are at an inflection point. Let’s see how the political theater plays out tonight.
Have a nice evening everyone.
