Friends
After Friday’s rally, it didn’t come as a big surprise that stocks might cool off some on the first day of the new trading week. Yes, there was a little bit of hawkish talk from a Fed governor on television, but today’s biggest story might have been the sell-off in the bond market. As we talked about last week, market participants don’t really seem to know how to deal with the recent rise in interest rates. Is it a good sign (improving economy) or is something sinister a foot?
As for stocks, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 85 points to finish the day at 18,105. The S&P 500 was down 10 points to close at 2105. Gold was down $6 to trade at $1183 per ounce, while oil was down $.21 to trade at $59.18 per barrel WTI.
We get the recently heavily watched JOLTS (job openings and labor turnover survey) number tomorrow, retail sales on Wednesday, and the weekly jobless claims on Thursday, so we’ll see if the Fed can compile enough positive data to justify a rate increase sooner than later. We know they want to do it, but have insisted they will be data dependent. Let’s see how the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
