Friends
Traders (at least those not on vacation) seem to be focused on when the Fed will begin the tapering process. Again, the tapering process (lowering the amount of securities being purchased on a monthly basis) is not taking the punch bowl away. It is simply reducing the amount of punch being poured into the bowl on a monthly basis. Nevertheless, market participants seem to be obsessed with the notion that tapering may be starting soon. As we have said, bring it on. Let’s begin the process of getting the Fed out of the way. The weaning process has to start sometime, and with economic data points continuing to be a little better each month, the Fed should be justified in beginning the dreaded taper.
As for today, after spending the bulk of the day in decidedly negative territory, stocks attempted a late day rally only to come up short by the close. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 48 points to close at 15,470. The S&P 500 was down 6 points to finish the day at 1690. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1284 per ounce, while oil was down $1.14 to trade at $104.16 per barrel WTI. Today marked the third day in a row that stocks lost ground. We have not seen that in a while. The bulls will want to recapture 1700 on the S&P soon, or the bears just might be able to gain some traction. A pullback in here might just be the pause that refreshes.
We will get the weekly jobless claims number tomorrow, but other than Fed Governors giving speeches, this week is somewhat quiet. Yes, we have a few more earnings reports to get through, but the dog days of summer have set in. Good time to go to the beach.
Have a nice evening everyone.
