Friends
Stocks spent the day in negative territory as weakness overseas spread to our shores at the open and buyers never showed up to change the direction. Yes, we did rally from the lows of the day, but it never felt like the bulls had any control of the situation. But the big story is the amazing countertrend rally we have seen in oil prices and subsequent energy shares. A report that perhaps shale production has been curbed more than previously thought, along with thoughts that maybe OPEC is softening its hard stance, fueled the early morning turnaround and WTI added to its fierce gains from late last week. In just a few trading sessions oil prices have risen a whopping 25%.
As for stocks, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 114 points to finish the day at 16,528. The S&P 500 was down 16 points to close at 1972. Gold was mostly unchanged for the day, trading at $1134 per ounce, while the aforementioned oil was up $3.47 to trade at $48.69 per barrel WTI.
As the week progresses, trader’s focus will turn towards Friday’s jobs report. Along the way we’ll get ISM and PMI manufacturing numbers on Tuesday, Factory Orders and ADP private payrolls on Wednesday, and jobless claims, ISM and PMI non-manufacturing (services) on Thursday. It will be a busy week chocked full of economic data. Stay tuned, volatility is likely going to be with us again this week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
