Friends
Stocks seemed to suffer a bit of a hangover today from last week’s gains, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 247 points. The S&P 500 was down 23 points to finish the day at 1200. After having rallied for a week and a half and more than 10% in value, stocks were disappointed by the news out of Europe this morning, as expectations of some grand solution coming out of next week’s EU summit were tempered by various reports that any progress will take time and most likely be gradual. Also, earnings reports from Wells Fargo and Citigroup did not do much to help traders gain any confidence that banks were going to lead the market upward any time soon.
The S&P 500 traded right down into support around 1200 to 1205. We’ll see if that will be a line in the sand that the bulls can defend. If not, we are likely to fall back towards the 1170 area which is right around the 50 day moving average. As has been the case for some time, technical levels are giving traders what they need to play off of considering the volatility that they have to deal with on a daily basis. Oil was down slightly and remains in the $86 per barrel area. Gold was down $10 to the $1672 area.
We have a lot of earnings reports coming in the next two weeks and that, along with the continuing saga in Europe, will set the tone for stock trading on a day to day basis. We’ll keep you up to date as the week unfolds.
Have a nice evening everyone.
