Friends
Well, 2014 has begun, and stocks stumbled coming out of the starting blocks. One day does not represent much of anything, considering many were waiting to take some profits until after the first of the year so as not to have to pay taxes until next year (2015). After last year’s 308 point Dow advance on the first day of trading, and up days on the last five first days of trading, today’s drop sets a different tone than we have seen in recent years.
As for the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 135 points to close at 16,441. The S&P 500 was down 16 points to finish the day at 1831. Gold was up $20 to trade at $1222 per ounce, while oil was down $2.92 to trade at $95.50 per barrel WTI.
Many on Wall Street believe that the first 5 trading days of the year will predict how the rest of the year will play out, and that January itself has predicted the outcome of the year close to 90% of the time over the past 63 years. Tomorrow ends this shortened week, so we may have to wait until next week to get a real feel for how traders are feeling about things as the beginning of the year unfolds. We’ll let you know how the week ends.
Have a nice evening everyone.
