Friends
Stocks enjoyed a nice advance this afternoon. After early disappointing economic news here at home (rising business inventories and lousy retail sales), stocks that had enjoyed a little pop at the open, found themselves in negative territory by mid-morning. Then a conference call between the Germans, French and the Greeks produced news that Greece was going to get their next “installment” of $8 billion, and for now will continue to be welcome members of the Eurozone. A vote of confidence, if you will. Seems to me that it just prolongs the inevitable, but for now we’ll take the subsequent rally in stocks. Earlier in the morning, Treasury Secretary Geithner assured us that the Europeans will indeed back their banks. “No chance” was the response by Mr. Geithner when asked about European banks failing or the Euro falling apart. Hmmm.
Anyway, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, after two up days in a row, had a tasty 140 point advance (although it was up over 275 points before the last half hour) . The S&P 500 was up over 15 points to finish the day at 1188. Once the bulls blasted through the 1181 mark on the S&P, it was off to the races and traders focused on the 1200 level again. We will be watching to see if the bulls can blast through 1200, or are we destined to go right back down to the lower end of the trading range, perhaps 1140.
Gold was quiet most of the day down nearly $12 at the close, and oil also was down most of the day closing near the $88.50 per WTI barrel.
This is an options expiration week, so we will be on the lookout for more volatility. I guess that’s nothing really new.
Have a nice evening everyone.
