Friends
We thought we had a deal in Greece yesterday (though we were skeptical), but as today indicates, this drama never seems to end. It will be another weekend of anticipation and anxiety, as we wait to see whether the hoped for austerity measures can pass political mustard. In the meantime, traders took the opportunity to do a little selling as we had not seen a meaningful down day yet this year. That is until today. A bull might say that we are due to have a little healthy pullback right about now, but the bears finally have something to get their juices flowing again, as the never ending Greece saga provides the headline news needed to derail stocks, at least for one day.
After being down about 145 points early in the afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 89 points to close at 12,801. Compared to last year’s craziness, not that big a deal, but by far the worst trading day of the new year. The S&P 500 was down 9 points to finish the day at 1342. Gold was down $19.50 to close near $1721 and oil was up $.80 to finish the day near $99 per barrel WTI.
This day was totally about Greece, but on the domestic front the Consumer Sentiment number slipped a little from last month’s number. Again, left alone, the U.S. economy and stock market would be doing just fine. Unfortunately the global macro conditions never “leave us alone”.
We’ll keep an eye on the Greek situation over the weekend. Hmm, feels a little like last year. Oh boy.
Have a nice weekend everyone. We’ll get back at it on Monday.
