Friends
After a very lively week, stocks took a breather today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded in a very narrow range (by today’s standards anyway), and finally finished the day up 22 points. The S&P 500 was up less than a point to finish the day at 1285. Oil was down slightly but still trading north of $93 WTI, and gold was down slightly and was trading near $1743 late in the session.
As we have gotten through the bulk of the earnings season, the takeaway is that more than 70% of the companies that have reported have beaten analysts’ estimates. On the other hand, we did get a lot of negative or at least “conservative” guidance from many corporate CEOs as the concern of a slowdown in the global macro economy has caused many of these corporate leaders to be cautious when presenting their views for the next few quarters. Who can blame them? It’s always better to set expectations low and then deliver better than expected results.
All in all, it just seemed that traders needed a break after the frantic action of the last few weeks. Monday is the last day of the month and it looks as if managers were happy to stand pat as they go into the weekend. As for technical levels, the bulls will want to see 1257 on the S&P 500 hold as support as we enter November. If the bulls can hang in here, the assault of 1300 and beyond could be in the cards. Next Friday we will get the non-farm payroll number which might set the tone for early November. The next hurdle will be the special budget committee and the likely bad vibes that might come from those meetings.
We’ll see how the month ends on Monday, and try to get you set up for November’s trading. Have a nice weekend everyone. We’ll talk next week.
