Friends
Of course the main story of interest today is the tragic shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. Once again our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of another senseless shooting in our country. As for the markets, the news overnight that Larry Summers had withdrawn his name from consideration for the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, sent stock futures soaring as traders displayed a sigh of relief that the often abrasive Summers would not change the dovish course of the Fed (I am not sure he really would have done anything different than say, Janet Yellen, but the markets saw him as more hawkish). The result was a sizable rally at the beginning of trading, and stocks spent the rest of the afternoon trying to hold onto those gains.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 118 points to finish the day at 15,494. The S&P 500 was up 9 points to close at 1697. Gold was virtually unchanged with the precious metal trading at $1308 per ounce, while oil was down $2.06 to trade at $106.17 per barrel WTI. For a brief period, the bulls had recaptured the 1700 level on the S&P, but were unable to hold on to it as the afternoon wore on.
Market participants will be focusing on the Fed meeting tomorrow and Wednesday to determine whether we will learn about the beginning of the tapering process. The bet is that tapering will begin, but in a small manner. What will be interesting to see is how the markets will react if there is no announcement or guidance on tapering. No tapering would be a signal that the economy is not ready yet. Is that good news, or is that bad news? Here we go again.
Try to have a nice evening everyone.
