Friends
The election is over and we are left with government that is basically the same it was yesterday. No change in the White House and very little change in Congress. All that money spent and basically we are right where we started. Oh well, as we say around here, we have to trade the market we have, not the one we want. In other words we have to deal with the government we have, not the one we want.
Early this morning stock futures were showing gains, but then we got negative comments out of Mr. Draghi of the ECB and more rioting in the streets of Greece, and gloom and doom took over. Stocks fell right from the start and quickly gave back yesterday’s gains. No doubt investors are concerned that this divided government stands a good chance of taking us over the fiscal cliff. Yesterday’s optimism (for whatever reason) gave way to today’s pessimism. Many say that we had a “Romney might win rally” yesterday, but I’m not buying it. Inside Wall Street, it was overwhelmingly believed that Obama was going to win easily. Whatever the reason, the sell-off today is what it is.
After a more than 350 point midday drop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 312 points to close at 12,932. The S&P 500 was down 33 points to finish the day at 1394. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1717 per ounce, while oil gave back all of yesterday’s gains and more dropping $4.40 to trade at $84.55 per barrel WTI (that’s a good thing, right?). The S&P 500 failed at resistance again and violated a couple support levels.
For those of you that are disappointed today, we can feel your pain, but remember that from disaster comes opportunity. We have remained conservatively positioned all year long, missing some of the Fed easy money fueled advance, but now feel we are in position to take advantage of the price dislocation that may occur as the “fiscal cliff ” appears on the horizon. Be assured that our country’s problems will be addressed by our politicians. We are just not sure how much pain they will put us through before they are solved. You may ask, how can I be so sure that the problems will be eventually solved? Ah, that’s where the markets come in. The markets will dictate to the politicians. If they think they can inflict pain on us, the markets surely can inflict pain on them. The markets will speak, whether sooner or later, and the issues will be addressed, and once this is all behind us America can grow again, regardless of what political party is in charge. This country can’t be held down by political “small mindedness” (is that a word?).
Ok, I’m done pontificating for today. Have a great evening everyone.
