Citi News Overshadows Market Strength

Oct 16, 2012 | Market Commentary

Friends

While the business media were in a frenzy over the resignation/firing of Citibank’s CEO Vikram Pandit this morning, the bulls quietly, while no one was looking, took the market on a nice advance. Just a day after Citibank announced a better than expected quarter, their CEO is gone. Very strange occurrence. It sure kept CNBC busy all day, as journalists and analysts scrambled to “get the story”.

Anyway, after decent CPI and Industrial Production numbers, traders got the itch to buy and sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 127 points to finish the day at 13,551. The S&P 500 was up 14 points to close at 1454. Gold was up $11 to trade at $1748 per ounce, while oil was up $.20 to trade at $92.05 per barrel WTI.

So far, earnings reports are not as bad as perhaps the market was anticipating, but it is still early and we have a lot of reports yet to come. For the moment, with a seemingly calm Europe, decent domestic economic numbers and ok earnings reports, the bulls seem to be emboldened. Remember, the 50 day moving average on the S&P held (1425) to the technicians are feeling a little better this week also.

We’ll keep an eye on the rest of the week.

Have a nice evening everyone and enjoy the debate.

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