Friends
If the January indicator is intact, we are in for a good year in stocks. You know the saying, as January goes – so does the year. Well, as we have seen in recent years, that isn’t always the truth, but one can’t deny it was a good January for stocks. It’s true that we seemed to have run out of gas the last couple of days, but the bulls will point out, it’s just the pause that refreshes. Whatever the case, despite less than dynamic economic growth (I’m being kind), market participants seem to want to get money put to work in stocks. God knows, the 0% that they have been getting at the bank or in money market accounts does get old after a while. Perhaps Dr. Bernanke’s zero interest rate policy is finally forcing some money off the sidelines and into the market. To this point earnings season has gone relatively well, and it sure doesn’t look like the Fed is going to take the punch bowl away any time soon.
As for today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 49 points to close at 13,860. The S&P 500 was down 3 points to finish the day at 1498. Gold was down $16 to trade at $1665 per ounce, while oil was up $.44 to trade at $97.50 per barrel WTI(anyone else worrying about this rise in oil prices and its effect on future economic growth?). Unfortunately, for the bulls we couldn’t hold 1500 on the S&P, but it was close.
We get the all-important jobs report tomorrow, which should tee us up for early February trading. It was a good first month of the year for stocks. Let’s hope we get some follow through and confirmation from the economy soon.
Have a nice evening everyone.
