Friends
After a very good first quarter, stocks resumed their rise today. After an early morning 50 point dip in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, stocks staged a reversal and by midday were comfortably in positive territory. The last three hours of trading provided very little change and for the day the Dow finished up 52 points to close at 13,264. The S&P 500 was up 10 points to close at 1418. Gold was up $6.80 to finish near $1678 per ounce, and oil was up $2.20 to trade near $105.22 per barrel WTI.
On the global economic front, the China PMI number we were waiting for over the weekend was slightly better than expected, but various reports out of Europe were gloomy including a column that described France’s actual debt-to-GDP as being near 146% (a bit higher than the official 86% number). On the home front, the March ISM manufacturing index came in just slightly above expectations. We’ll give the nod on economic news to the bulls, but just barely.
Most of this shortened week (markets are closed for Good Friday), will be focused on Friday’s employment report. Of course the following week will mark the beginning of earnings season. We’ll keep you informed.
Have a nice evening everyone. Who are you rooting for tonight?
