Friends
If you have a chance, watch the cat fight between two hedge fund titans, Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman, on CNBC’s air today (their web site has it). It was unreal, and led me to wonder whether managing client’s money was as important to them as their egos. Anyway, in addition to those fireworks, stocks continued to defy gravity (and the bears) as the major averages all gained ground. More “good enough” earnings reports from the likes of Starbucks, ATT, P&G and even Microsoft seemed to continue to fuel the advance.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 70 points to close at 13,895. The S&P 500 was up 8 to finish the day at 1502. Gold was down $11 to trade at $1658 per ounce, while oil was up $.06 to trade at $96.01 per barrel WTI. That is an impressive 11 up days out of the last 12 trading days for the Dow, and a close over 1500 for the S&P was also a nice development for the bulls. Another nice sign is the move in bonds with the 10 year Treasury note yield hitting 1.95%. Doesn’t sound like much but that is a lot higher (on a percentage basis) than the 1.60% we saw just weeks ago.
As we work our way through earnings season, stock reactions to the reports have been impressive. Though the news really hasn’t been that great, it seems like money is showing up and needing to be put to work. As I said yesterday, I wouldn’t mind a little pause in here, but at least the advance has been step by step, not huge gaps. Maybe we can forge upward in this manner without any sizable pullbacks. Then again…
Have a nice weekend everyone.
