Friends
Stocks added to yesterday’s gains but seemed to run out of gas as the afternoon wore on. Once again, we are getting back close to the highs in the S&P 500 and the Dow, but we’ve been here before and were unable to break through. The “sell in May and go away” crowd will lose their minds if we do break through 2132 on the S&P and explode higher. Indeed, the bears have been vocal and relentless in their views that stocks are going to fall hard and soon. Not many expect the summer to bring new highs to the market averages. As you know, for years we have insisted that we don’t make market predictions, but if the market confounds most people most of the time, then a move to new highs would definitely qualify.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17 points to finish the day at 17,938. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to close at 2112. Gold was down $1 to trade at $1,246 per ounce, while oil was up $.77 to trade at $50.46 per barrel WTI. Finally a close above $50.
Again, we are now officially on Fed watch, with the FOMC meeting scheduled to begin a week from today, but most of the excitement was taken out of it by the lousy jobs report and the subsequent short term dovish comments by Fed Chair Yellen. We get the JOLTS (job openings and labor turnover survey) report tomorrow, which may give a little more color to the employment situation, so we’ll see how market participants react to it- if at all.
Have a nice evening everyone.
