Friends
Stocks slumped on this first day of the new quarter as bond yields pushed higher. As we prepare for the upcoming earnings season, investors are beginning to ask themselves if the Fed is going to follow through with rate cuts that were promised/implied/expected when the year began. In the meantime, it’s going to be pretty difficult for the bulls to follow the first quarter that just finished.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 240 points to finish the day at 39,566. The S&P 500 was down 10 points to close at 5,243. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 17 points to close at 16,396. Gold was up $23 to trade at $2,262 per ounce, while oil was up $.75 to trade at $83.92 per barrel WTI.
Again, with bond yields inching higher recently, the excitement about rate cuts seems to be waning at the moment. Lower rates were supposed to be at least part of the reason stocks could move higher this year. The other reason of course is earnings. We’ll get a good look at first quarter corporate earnings results over the next several weeks. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
Jim
