Friends
After a day of rest, the bulls were back at it today driving stock prices higher despite the fact that “experts” are scratching their heads wondering why. Whether the argument is that there is no other alternative, or that central banks are going to continue easy money policies, or perhaps earnings have turned the corner (we’ll find that out in the next couple of weeks), the simple fact is that stocks are climbing higher despite the massive amount of hand wringing on Wall Street.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 134 points to finish the day at 18,506. The S&P 500 was up 11points to close at 2162. Gold was down $9.30 to trade at $1334 per ounce, while oil was up $.70 to trade at $45.43 per barrel WTI.
As we have mentioned, valuations are getting more and more stretched so it would seem likely that we would need a better than expected earnings season to justify today’s prices. J P Morgan Chase led off the plethora of bank stock earnings reports with what was actually a decent report. Let’s see how the rest of the week goes with regards to bank earnings reports. Remember, shares of financial institutions have really lagged the market so far this year. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
