Friends
The White House unveiled the President’s first budget proposal this morning and the howling began immediately thereafter. How dare anyone suggest that we need to tighten our belts. The main street narrative is that the Trump administration wants to cut vital programs to support a tax cut. You know we don’t like to wade into politics, so we’ll let you decide. As for stocks, it was a quiet day with a slightly upward bias. The bulls seem to have run into that S&P 500 resistance level of 2,400. It will be interesting to see if the bulls can break out above that level before the Holiday weekend.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 43 points to finish the day at 20,937. The S&P 500 was up 4 points to close at 2,398. Gold was down $10 to trade at $1,250 per ounce, while oil was up $.33 to trade at $51.46 per barrel WTI.
Despite national home builder Toll Brothers announcing their best numbers in some time, the government new home sales number was weaker than expected this morning. Just another inconsistency to deal with for economists and Fed Reserve members. We get existing home sales numbers as well as housing prices tomorrow so that may flesh out the housing picture a bit. We’ll get weekly jobless claims on Thursday and then durable goods and a revision to first quarter GDP on Friday. The bulls still seem to hold the high ground for the moment, but let’s see if they can break through resistance.
Have a nice evening everyone.
