Friends
Stocks continue to advance as earnings reports are good enough, economic news is at least not too bad, and cash seems to need somewhere to go. The bulls are charging toward 14,000 on the Dow and the S&P seems to have cleared 1500 without much resistance. Today’s consumer confidence report was lacking, but traders seem to shake off any bad news these days and continue to put money to work in stocks. Believe me, there are many doubters still, and just as was the case last year, many fund managers feel underinvested as the year gets underway.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 72 points to close at 13,954.The S&P 500 was up 7 points to finish the day at 1507. Gold was up $9 to trade at $1662 per ounce, while oil was up $1.01 to trade at $97.45 per barrel WTI.
We still have more earnings reports to mull over but so far we are seeing better than expected revenue numbers with over 60% of the companies that have reported having beaten the analyst estimates on the top line. That is better than we have seen for several quarters. We had seen beats on the bottom line as companies were able to grow net margins (due to cost cutting via layoffs etc.), but revenue growth had been lacking. That is helpful for the bull’s case.
Remember also, we get the non-farm payroll number on Friday, which may or may not confirm the positive direction of the economy. Let’s see how the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
