Friends
Another day, another 200 point move. That’s right, stocks were on the move once again today and after a small early morning rally, the move was decidedly to the downside. Despite good earnings from retailers TJ Maxx and Home Depot, stocks rolled over later in the morning and continued to decline as the trading session wore on. When all was said and done, we gave back all of yesterday’s gains.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 180 points to finish the day at 17,529. The S&P 500 was down 19 points to close at 2047. Gold was up $6 to trade at $1281 per ounce, while oil was up $.73 to trade at $48.45 per barrel WTI (so much for yesterday’s oil/stocks correlation).
Tomorrow we get the Fed minutes from the last meeting, so we’ll get an inside look as to where the hawks and the doves break down. Today’s CPI was hotter than expected, industrial production was better than expected and housing starts ticked up in April, so perhaps the market’s reaction today was to the possibility that the Fed could, indeed, raise rates in June. Good news is bad news once again, evidently. Of course, these views seem to change on a daily basis, so we’ll be reserved in making any bold calls at this moment (if you have followed us through these emails since 2008, you know we never make bold calls).
Have a nice evening everyone.
