Friends
Stocks recovered some from Friday’s drubbing in Monday’s session, as market participants seemed comfortable stepping right in to buy at the lower prices. Once again, we continuously seem to return to the adage that there is no alternative (TINA). Yes, traders freaked out over Friday’s robust jobs number and its implications, but returned to stocks after a weekend to think about it. And yes, rates might tick higher, but not enough any time soon to warrant discarding stocks.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 138 points to finish the day at 17,995. The S&P 500 was up 8 points to close at 2079. Gold was up a measly $1 to trade at $1166 per ounce, while oil was up $.48 to trade at $50.09 per barrel WTI.
Besides Apple’s introduction of the Apple Watch, which we saw today, this week’s economic news will include tomorrow’s JOLTS report (job openings and turnover), jobless claims, import/export prices, retail sales and business inventories on Thursday, and consumer sentiment on Friday. We’ll keep an eye on the bond market and oil prices to see if they settle. If so, stocks could recapture last week’s losses.
By the way, today marked the 6 year anniversary of the March 9th 2009 lows in both the S&P and the Dow. Basically, stocks have tripled since those nerve racking days. In addition, if you had bought back in the heady days of October 2007, and experienced the full pain of the drop that would unfold over the next year and a half, you would still be up about 35% (despite the fact that you might have thought you were the worst market timer ever- but time seems to heal all wounds as far as the stock market goes) in the market averages. Just an interesting fact to consider on the anniversary day.
Have a nice evening everyone.
