Friends
Stocks enjoyed a decent reversal today, though it did fizzle a little at the end of trading. After getting off to a lousy start fueled by Italian rates getting back above 7%, stocks fought back all afternoon. After a 75 point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average which took us right to the 12,000 level, stocks staged a rally to finish the day with a gain of 17 points and close at 12,096. The S&P 500 was up 6 points to close at 1257. We have been trying to figure out for days now, whether the 1257 level will become resistance or support as we head into the holiday season. Gold was up about $6 for the day to finish near $1784. Oil was up again about $1.40 to finish the day near $99.55 per barrel WTI. After being well under $80 just weeks ago, it looks as though oil is about to crack the $100 mark again.
Trading has been extremely light the first two days of the week, and if one didn’t know better you might have thought it was a holiday week. Traders seem to have very little conviction as to where markets are headed in the next few weeks. We, of course, continuously have to keep an eye on all things Europe, but we also have the ‘gang of twelve” budget deadline coming up. It doesn’t seem likely we will get anything very positive out of that mess, but the key is – has the market already factored and priced that in?
Earnings from retailers has been somewhat mixed this week, but certainly not bad. We’ll see if traders can find something to get excited about this week, one way or the other. We’ll let you know.
Have a nice evening everyone.
