Friends
And we’re off. Here we go into the final quarter of the year. First up we have a busy week of economic reports which culminates with Friday’s jobs report. But before that, today we got a much better than expected ISM manufacturing number, and on Wednesday we get the ADP private payroll number. In the coming weeks we get a look at corporate earnings for the 3rd quarter, and once again expectations are tempered. We have two FOMC meetings before year end, one in November and one in December (market pundits are looking for a possible rate hike in December). Oh, and yes, we have a presidential election coming up in early November. It should be an interesting and active quarter.
As for today’s action, stocks fell early (about 100 Dow points) and spent the rest of the trading session paring those losses. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 54 points to finish the day at 18,253. The S&P 500 was down 7 points to close at 2161. Gold was down $2 to trade at $1,315 per ounce, while oil was up $.42 to trade at $48.66 per barrel WTI.
As mentioned, this should be a very interesting coming 90 days. We enter this all-important part of the year with interest rates still near record lows and stocks valuations a little bit on the expensive side (earnings seasons should help clarify that). One would expect the volatility that we saw come back in September continue into year end, but we will see. Stay with us.
Have a nice evening everyone.
