Friends
With the bond market closed today, stocks basically just drifted along on very light volume as traders seem reluctant to get involved at the moment. With non-stop talk of the fiscal cliff and what type of deal might be struck, investors seem almost scared to do anything. Sell everything and wait until things are settled? That would almost guarantee that a deal would get done and stocks explode to the upside. Buy everything in sight and bet that the politicians surely know that they have to get something done? That would surely mean that over the cliff we go. It seems for the moment, traders seem to want to just sit on their hands. We’ll see if that lasts.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1 point to close at 12,816. The S&P 500 was up a fraction of a point to finish the day at 1380. Gold was down $3 to trade at $1727 per ounce, while oil was down $.41 to trade at $85.66 per barrel WTI.
Our view continues to be that a deal will get done at some point, but some pain may have to be endured before we get there. It is hard to believe that our politicians will act before the heat is applied. We can hope, but hope is not an investment strategy. We’ll continue to be cautious but look for opportunities to buy things on sale.
God bless all our veterans. Have a nice evening everyone.
