Friends
If you want to look for positive signs in what has been a negative beginning to the year, look no further than today’s stock market action. Instead of a failed rally, which seems to be a daily occurrence in 2016, today we saw stocks tumble to a triple digit loss in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the morning, only to recover as the trading session wore on and actually trade in positive territory before a last minute dip. Helping the recovery seems to have been dovish comments by Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer. Perhaps, the Fed is acknowledging that they might have to rethink the multiple rate hike program for 2016 and beyond, given the state of the global economy. Traders showed a sigh of relief.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 17 point to finish the day at 16,449. The S&P 500 was down less than a point to close at 1939. Gold was up $12 to trade at $1,129 per ounce, while oil, again separating from stocks, was down $2.16 to trade at $31.46 per barrel WTI.
Again, we have a busy week of earnings. As we noted previously, it has been somewhat of a mixed bag of results. We’ve seen some real disappointments/mispricing and we’ve seen some pleasant surprises where the share price had been too deeply discounted. All in all, it would appear that lowered expectations were, in most cases, lowered for good reason. Let’s see how this week plays out.
Have a good evening everyone.
