Friends
Stocks were able to recover yesterday after being down 85 Dow points in the early afternoon, but today was another story. After a small up opening, stocks spent the rest of the day in negative territory. Market darling Apple rose early in the session to over $526 per share, only to roll over and become susceptible to profit taking as the day wore on (remember, Apple shares began the year at $405, so they have had quite a rise). At the close, traders had taken a bite out of the Apple as the bellwether closed at $498. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 97 points to finish the day at 12,780. The S&P 500 was down 7 points to close at 1343 (again, 1350 becomes a formidable resistance level). Gold was up $12 to close near $1730. Oil was up $1.29 to finish the day near $102 per barrel WTI.
Once again, we have confusion out of Greece, and at this point the threat of a disorderly default is back on the table. Until there is some resolution, the Greece situation hangs over this market like the sword of Damocles. Traders have been looking for a reason to sell something, as stocks have had a fairly good time of it so far this year, and Greece is giving them that reason to sell.
On the economic front, we got a good Empire State manufacturing number (much better than expected). The rest of the day was spent trying to decipher the Fed minutes, and determining how many hawks and how many doves were on each side. Will there be an official QE3? Will the Fed actually raise interest rates well before 2014? Is the Fed being too transparent, giving us too much information which basically is causing total confusion? Probably.
Well, the market giving back some of the nice gains we’ve experienced since the beginning of the year is not at all unusual. What strikes me is how quick the pundits turn negative. There was plenty of “sky is falling” all day on CNBC. We mentioned a few days ago that the silence was deafening. Well, now we are getting a little noise. We’ll see how loud it gets.
Have a nice evening everyone.
