Friends
After a couple of days of selling, stocks found a little sponsorship today, but not without some volatility. At the open we continued the last 2 days selloff, but by late morning we had climbed back into positive territory. As Speaker of the House Boehner held a quick press conference before President Obama’s scheduled appearance at the White House, stocks rose 70 Dow points, as thoughts of cooperation danced in trader’s heads. But when the President reminded everyone that he won the election and that he was drawing a line in the sand on taxes, stocks retreated back to negative territory. But by the end of the day, buyers appeared and stocks inched back into positive territory.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 4 points to close at 12,815. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to finish the day at 1379. Gold was up more than $4 to trade at $1730 per ounce, while oil was up $1.01 to trade at $86.10 per barrel. We had a lot of technical damage this week, but we did seem to find an oversold level that may serve as a pause point.
It was a tumultuous week as stocks first rallied, then fell. Unfortunately, though the election is behind us, the politicking is just beginning. As I said earlier this week, a deal on the “fiscal cliff” will get done, but we are likely to be subjected to endless posturing and bickering before we get there. Hang in there, things will be volatile as stocks react to every rumor and every political statement, but we’ll get through it.
Have a great weekend everyone.
