Friends
After yesterday afternoon’s blowout earnings report from Apple, stocks were primed to have a good day today as trading got underway. After an early rise, stocks drifted until the Fed report came out at 11:30, our time, and then the 1:15 press conference with Dr. Bernanke. The takeaway is that the economy is growing at a 2% to 3% pace and employment is getting a little better, BUT… Dr. Bernanke mentioned in his press conference that if conditions deteriorated, the Fed would be ready to use whatever tools it had at its disposal to offset the weakness. That is really all traders needed to hear. Is QE3 likely? No. Not as we stand today, but if things change, the Fed continues to indicate that they will intervene. Of course, you can see the exasperation on his face, when Dr. Bernanke is asked about fiscal policies and the cliff that we are heading for in 2013, should the current tax laws expire. We can relate to that frustration.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 89 points to close at 13,090. The S&P 500 was up 18 to finish the day at 1390. Gold sold off when Dr. Bernanke hinted that the Fed could still provide more stimulus, but recovered to close virtually unchanged. Oil was up $.53 to trade at $104.08 per barrel WTI (I thought those analysts said oil was heading under $100).
Now with the Fed meeting behind us, we can continue to enjoy the very tasty earnings season we are experiencing. Many expected little year over year growth this quarter, but instead we are getting numbers that are averaging over 6% growth in the reports we have received so far. Let’s see if these good numbers can continue. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could focus our attention on corporate earnings only, and not be distracted by Europe, China and all those tiresome global situations? Oh well, back to reality…
Have a nice evening everyone.
