Friends
Today’s release of the Fed minutes appeared to strengthen the position of those who were betting that the Fed would raise interest rates by a quarter of point at the late July FOMC meeting. Fed officials don’t believe they have finished the inflation fight just yet. But remember, the more aggressive the Fed is at fighting inflation, especially at this point of the process, the bigger the risk that the economy could suffer. I thought maybe they were done after last meeting’s pause, but it appears that will not be case. Nevertheless, we will get a look at the non-farm payroll number on Friday and of course are just a couple of weeks away from corporate earnings season.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 129 points to finish the day at 34,289. The S&P 500 was down 8 points to close at 4,446. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 25 points to close at 13,791. Gold was down $5 to trade at $1,924 per ounce, while oil was up $2.21 to trade at $72 per barrel WTI.
It’s kind of an odd week for trading given Monday’s shortened session and the holiday yesterday. All eyes will be on Friday’s jobs report and then as mentioned we will turn our focus to earnings season.
Have a nice evening everyone.
