Friends
Overnight news out of China, weakness in Europe, Greece as always, and problems with Bloomberg machines, set the tone for a weak opening for stocks, and that is what we got. As the morning rolled on, stocks continued to fall and by early afternoon the Dow was sitting on a more than 300 point loss (the S&P more than 30 points). The last hour saw a little bit of recovery, but it didn’t seem like traders wanted any part of this market as we enter the weekend.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 279 points to finish the day at 17,826. The S&P 500 was down 23 points to close at 2081. Gold was up $6 to trade at $1204 per ounce, while oil was down $.58 to trade at $56.13 per barrel WTI.
Next week we get about 150 of the S&P 500 companies reporting earnings and then about 200 the week after that, so market participants will have a lot of earnings reports to consider, as April unfolds. 2015 continues to be one of no market direction and somewhat sloppy trading. Determining a trend or what will be the next substantial direction is keeping traders confounded. Let’s see if the plethora of earnings that we will see over the next couple of weeks will help market participants get a feel for valuation and the next move the markets will make.
Have a great weekend everyone.
