Friends
Earnings season is in full force now, (we get Google and IBM after the close today) and despite some pretty darn good reports, stocks still look rather disheveled. For the third day this week the market ended in negative territory, and yes we did rally off the midday lows as we seem to have been wont to do lately, but down is down. Consumer staples like Coca Cola and Pepsi have reported good numbers, as did Verizon today. The problem is that this handful of stocks with their tasty dividends aren’t enough to hold up the averages as economically sensitive stocks continue to suffer.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 81 points to finish the day at 14,537. The S&P 500 was down 10 points to close at 1541. Gold was up $5 to trade at $1387 per ounce, while oil was up $1.72 to trade at $88.40 per barrel WTI. Yes, gold and oil stopped going down for ten minutes, but still have suffered severe damage. The S&P did hold the all-important 1540 level, which kept the bears from licking their chops, but the bulls better defend that level tomorrow.
We’ll continue to monitor the parade of earnings releases and also keep a close eye on various technical levels on the S&P and other indices. Let’s see how the market closes tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
