Friends
Today marks the end of trading for the month of September and the 3rd quarter, and all I can say is good riddance. Stocks spent the whole day in the red and by the end of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 240 points. The S&P 500 closed down 29 points to end the quarter at 1131, which represents a loss of about 14%. That, my friends is a lousy quarter. Gold was up slightly most of the day, but other commodities took it on the chin as the dollar strengthened.
Well, we were concerned about stocks as we entered the third quarter and subsequently added to our protect buckets as summer approached. Now as the summer and the 3rd quarter are behind us, we’ll peek our heads out and assess the damage. The fourth quarter is typically pretty good for stocks, but we’ll have to see how the macro headwinds play out before we dip into that protect bucket. The good news is that negativity is soaring and valuation is attractive. On the other hand, nothing is really resolved in Europe and China seems to be slowing. We’ll watch the domestic economic numbers in the next few weeks, but the last few days have produced somewhat pleasant surprises on that front, even though you wouldn’t know it by the action in stocks and bonds.
As I mentioned, we are entering a season that is typically good for stocks, so let’s stay positive and continue to look for opportunities. We’ll keep you informed as the new quarter unfolds.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
