Friends
After several days of advance, stocks gave back a little of their recent gains with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 40 points. The S&P 500 was down 3 points to close at 1203. After touching 1220 yesterday, it will be interesting to see if we settle back into the previous trading range, or do the bulls regroup and take another shot at 1220 to 1230. If the bulls can push through the higher end of the range, the bears would start feeling the pressure and we could quickly test higher levels. The pullback was orderly today and the bulls would contend that a little backing and filling after the 10% plus move of the past week is actually healthy for the market.
On the earnings front, JP Morgan’s earnings announcement this morning was met with disdain as the struggle for banks to make money continues. Between onerous regulation and a flattening yield curve, banks continue to be unloved by investors. The lack of activity in the capital markets hurts big banks like JP Morgan also.
After a difficult 10 year auction yesterday, the 30 year auction today went quite well. Interest rates on Treasury securities have gone up in the last week as the stock market found some footing. The 10 year moved from a yield of less than 2% to a yield of 2.25% as of yesterday. With stocks down today, yields settled back to the 2.18% area near the close. Gold has been moving with stocks and was down about $13 near the close. Oil was down $1.20 to close near $84.37 WTI.
After the close, Google just announced a very good earnings number which might help the tech stocks tomorrow. We’ll let you know how tomorrow goes.
Have a nice evening everyone.
