Friends
A very surprisingly weak retail sales number was just what the doctor ordered for the bulls. No, I am really serious. This week’s CPI number disrupted the narrative, but today’s weak retails sales number helped to offset the damage. Yes, bad news is good news in that it helped bonds rally and brought back into play an economic data point that could help the case for the Fed to lower rates. I know, it’s all a bit crazy.
Anyway, as for today by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 348 points to finish the day at 38,773. The S&P 500 was up 29 points to close at 5,029. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 47 points to close at 15,906. Gold was up $11 to trade at $2,016 per ounce, while oil was up $1.54 to trade at $78.18 per barrel WTI.
It’s been a wild week for the market averages. Stocks plunged but recovered. Where do we go from here? Well, first let’s see how the week finishes out tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
Jim
