Friends
The bulls tried to continue last week’s rally, but it appears that the buyers just ran out of ammunition by the close of trading today. Given the surge higher by the market averages late last week, it is probably a moral victory that we didn’t give a bigger chunk of that back today. Nevertheless, it was a very sloppy last hour for stocks.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 211 points to finish the day at 33,536. The S&P 500 was down 35 points to close at 3,957. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 127 points to close at 11,196. Gold was up $6 to trade at $1,775 per ounce, while oil was down $3.57 to trade at $85.39 per barrel WTI.
We might be in a little bit of a quiet period after last week’s election and CPI fireworks. Of course, we still don’t know the exact makeup of Congress just yet, but it still appears that the Republicans will squeak out a small margin in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats maintain the Senate. The collapse of crypto exchange company FTX kept the internet buzzing all weekend. I don’t have anything helpful to add to the situation in the crypto world. We simply have stayed away and don’t concern ourselves with it all other than the possibility that a collapse in that world would or could spill over into the world of stocks and bonds. At the moment is seems the crypto world’s problems are theirs alone, but we’ll always keep an eye out for any contagion. In the meantime, let’s see how stocks and bonds fare this week. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
