Friends
On this final day of April, the economic news was somewhat mixed. On the negative side of the ledger the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) was dreadful, while on the positive side of the ledger the consumer confidence number was better than expected. Traders seemed to want to lock in profits in early trading as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 75 points right after the opening bell. But this is Tuesday remember? Stocks can’t go down on Tuesday. We haven’t had a down Tuesday in almost four months. Sure enough, stocks began to climb back toward positive territory.
By the close, the Dow was up 20 points to finish the day at 14,839. The S&P 500 set a new record as the index was up 3 points to finish the day at 1597. Gold was up $7 to trade at $1474 per ounce, while oil was down $1.41 to trade at $93.09 per barrel WTI. Even though we closed on the highs of the month, April was challenging as we found ourselves down a bit at mid-month only to see the averages claw their way to new highs by the end of the month. Yes, there was some damage inflicted by earnings season, but the market as a whole held up in the end. What did return in April was volatility. We had several triple digit moves throughout the month and often multiple moves intraday.
We will continue to monitor this last major week of earnings and look forward to the Fed decision tomorrow, and the non-farm payroll number on Friday. We’ll let you know how the week plays out.
Have a nice evening.
