Friends
Stocks were mainly quiet as we start a new week of trading. We have seen a huge move higher in the past 5 months so it will be interesting to see if the bulls can keep things going without interruption or are we due to cool things off just a bit. The narrative has changed as most now feel that interest rate cuts from the Fed won’t likely begin until the second half of the year. That has not deterred the bulls at all as one might have thought it would. It appears that the only thing that would cause indigestion would be signals that no rate cuts are coming anytime soon, or God forbid if there was ever a whisper about additional rate hikes. So, for now interest rates lower in the second half of the year remains the most likely scenario.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 97 points to finish the day at 38,989. The S&P 500 was down 6 points to close at 5,130. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 67 points to close at 16,207. Gold was up $31 to trade at $2,126 per ounce, while oil was down $1.14 to trade at $78.83 per barrel WTI.
I’m curious just what will be the next catalyst for stocks. It feels like we are at a point where market participants are just waiting for some reason to buy or sell and really can’t find one right now. We will see. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
