Friends
After being down in early trading, stocks rallied late in the morning when Congressional leaders emerged from their meeting with the President holding hands and singing Kumbaya. Yes, they said all the right things, like they know what they have to do etc., and that sure was encouraging. The Republicans spoke about increasing revenues and the Democrats spoke about reducing spending, but I’ll bet that their rank and file might have a slightly different opinion about taxes and spending cuts. Anyway, at least the cooperative tone seemed to calm traders and put a little fear in the short sellers.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 45 points to close at 12,588. The S&P 500 was up 6 points to finish the day at 1359. Gold was down $1 to trade at $1712 per ounce, while oil was up $1.23 to trade at $87.10 per barrel WTI.
At least today stopped the carnage that we had seen all week long. If, indeed, the politicians are serious about getting things done before the end of the year, then we could set up for a nice advance. Of course, we would like to see this love fest last for more than a day. Stay tuned.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
