Friends
I am running out of clever ways to describe the lack of trading activity we continue to see. “Like watching paint dry”? No, not good enough. Suffice it to say, that as we wait on Dr. Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole this coming Friday, traders are just sitting on their hands (oh, there’s another way of saying it). The S&P 500 continues to hover above the 1400 level, yet 1425 seems a mile away at the pace we are on (of course, that will change someday, and probably soon). It sure appears that nothing much is going to happen until after Labor Day. The Europeans will be back from their month long vacations (I’m sure just itching to deal with debt problems and austerity), and traders here in the U. S. will be back from the Hamptons and ready to deal with “fiscal cliffs” and the Presidential election. As I’ve said before, the waiting is the hardest part (a nod to Tom Petty).
After some decent housing readings but disappointing confidence numbers, stocks drifted downward at the end of the day. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21 points to finish the day at 13,102. The S&P 500 was down 1 point to close at 1409. Gold was down $6 to trade at $1669 per ounce, while oil was up $.80 to trade at $96.27
We’ll see if we can generate any excitement the next couple of days, but in the meantime let’s all keep the folks in the path of Isaac in our thoughts and prayers.
Have a nice evening everyone.
