Friends
As another mass shooting is unfolding in California, it is difficult to even discuss the markets, but I’ll do my best. Stocks were quietly in negative territory before Janet Yellen’s midday speech, but drifted a bit lower after it ended. Then once word of the shootings in California began to hit the wires, stocks cascaded lower erasing most of yesterday’s gains.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 158 points to finish the day at 17,729. The S&P 500 was down 23 points to close at 2079. Gold was down $11 to trade at $1052 per ounce, while oil was down $1.75 to trade at $40.10 per barrel WTI.
On the economic front, after yesterday’s amazingly weak manufacturing data, at least today’s ADP private payroll number was better than expected (217,000 new jobs vs. the expected 190,000) with unit labor costs also up 1.3%. But, once again we have to deal with terror in this world. What a shame that this seems to keep on getting more frequent. Try to have a nice evening everyone. Hug a loved one.
