Friends
The month of September continues to be a difficult one for stocks. Despite today’s slightly better than expected CPI number, the bulls couldn’t mount much of a rally and as has been the pattern lately, an early move up quickly turned into a pullback. The markets have felt a bit heavy for a few weeks and despite only being a couple of percentage points off of all-time highs, it feels like we are in the midst of a downturn. Of course, downturns in recent times have been minor and quick. This could simply be another one of those or perhaps it becomes something more meaningful. As we know it’s been pretty much straight up since April 2020.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 292 points to finish the day at 34,577. The S&P 500 was down 25 points to close at 4,443. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 67 points to close at 15,037. Gold was up $11 to trade at $1,806 per ounce, while oil was down $.06 to trade at $70.39 per barrel WTI.
Remember, pullbacks/corrections are a normal part of the investing process. Sometimes outside forces cause those pullbacks to be violent and extreme like we saw in March of 2020. More often pullbacks are just part of the ebb and flow of the markets. The pendulum swings one way then eventually swings back the other direction. We might be experiencing one of those pendulum swings at the moment. But remember, pendulum swings should never disrupt one’s long term investment plan.
Have a nice evening everyone.
