Friends
Just another typical day for the stock market as we alternated from being up then down more than 100 Dow points only to finish the day up 37 points. Of course, the driving force was one rumor after another coming out of Europe and what might or might not transpire this weekend. The S&P 500 traded right down near 1200 in the morning only to rally back to 1220 and then finish the day at 1215. Gold was down around $24 for the day and oil finished the day virtually unchanged just north of $86 WTI.
On the earnings front, we continue to get relatively good numbers but stocks are not reacting particularly well to the news. Again, as we discussed yesterday, expectations go a long way in determining how stocks react to earnings news. What might look good, if already factored in, does not produce the result one might expect. On the whole, though, 70% of the earnings releases so far have beaten analyst’s estimates, and 10% have met analyst’s expectations. Only 20% have been weaker than expected. With the expectations that the 3rd quarter might have been the beginning of a recession, corporate earnings are not confirming that at this point.
We’ll see how the week finishes tomorrow, but it is likely that traders will be somewhat hesitant to take much of a stand before the European meetings this weekend.
We’ll let you know how the week finishes.
Have a nice evening everyone.
