Friends
Once again, we had a lot of news today, but a mixed reaction among markets. Along with a nice weekly jobless claims number (351,000) and a “so-so” personal spending number (.2%), we got surprisingly strong retail sales numbers from many of the nation’s largest retailers. Stocks reacted positively in the morning, but gave back all of the gains by mid-afternoon when unconfirmed reports of a pipeline explosion in Saudi Arabia sent oil spiking. At the close, stocks regained some of their momentum with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 28 points for the day to close at 12,980. The S&P 500 was up 8 points to close at 1374 (back over 1370). Gold bounced back slightly from yesterday’s massacre gaining $5 for the day to close near $1716. Oil spiked to over $110 per barrel, but settled back near $109 at the close. After the close the Saudi officials denied that the explosion occurred (you don’t think someone might have planted false information, do you?)
Anyway, after the best February for the S&P 500 in 14 years, March is off to a decent start. Pundits continue to look for a pullback, but stocks seem to want to confound as many investors as possible. We’ll see how the week ends tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
