Friends
Markets were somewhat quiet on Monday, as there was an early downward bias in the stock market. Traders seemed to want to give back Friday’s gains right from the start, and within a few minutes, stocks were trading with losses of more than 80 points on the Dow.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered slightly to finish the day down 50 points to close at 13,384. The S&P 500 was down 4 points to close at 1461. Gold was mostly unchanged to trade at $1648 per ounce, while oil was up a fraction to trade at $93.20 per barrel WTI.
Earnings season officially begins tomorrow as chronic disappointer, Alcoa, gets the ball rolling. We will be curious to see whether companies will use the “fiscal cliff” as an excuse if earnings come in a little shy of expectations. We have seen deteriorating consumer confidence numbers over the past few months, so it would not be surprising to see companies whining about the toxic atmosphere that they had to deal with. What we will be watching, of course, is how stocks react to their earnings releases, to give us an indication as to whether the market had the shares priced correctly. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
