Friends
The bulls had the upper hand for most of the trading session today, but seemed to run out of gas in the last hour of trading. A nice rally in oil helped spark a rise in energy shares, which accounted for much of the rise in the market averages. Other than that, it was really more of the same as market participants don’t seem to want to do much before next week’s FOMC meeting.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 36 points to finish the day at 17,000. The S&P 500 was up 10points to close at 1989. Gold was down $11 to trade at $1,251 per ounce, while the aforementioned oil was up $1.69 to trade at $38.19 per barrel WTI.
Today marked the 7th anniversary of the bull market that began March 9th of 2009. Of course, we would contend that we are in a bear cycle within a secular bull move that began back in those trying days. The past certainly doesn’t produce any predictive powers for the future, but it is helpful to remember how the collapse in 2008 and 2009 mentally affected each of us. Knowing that in an investor’s life cycle, difficult times will appear periodically along the path to financial success, it is helpful to remember how we coped with one of the most difficult moments in market history. That is how successful investors learn from the past and avoid mistakes in the future.
Have a great evening everyone.
