Friends
ECB President Mario Draghi came armed and ready to today’s press conference, announcing further rate cuts and expanding QE, which will now include the purchase of corporate debt as well as sovereign debt. Like Pavlov’s dog, markets responded accordingly with both European and U. S. stocks rallying in early morning trading. But then, perhaps after some common sense reasoning which might come to the conclusion that these continuous efforts to stimulate economies around the globe just might not be working, stocks tumbled decisively into negative territory with the Dow down as much as 150 points. But in the last hour of trading, the bears seemed to lose their edge and the bulls pushed stocks higher into the close.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5 points to close at 16,995. The S&P 500 was up a fraction to finish the day at 1989. Gold was up $14 to trade at 1,270 per ounce, while oil was down $.41 to trade at $37.88 per barrel WTI.
Well, with one trading day left, this week has been quiet compared to what we’ve seen so far in 2016. As mentioned, market participants may be waiting to see what comes out of the FOMC meeting next week, but today’s bazooka that Mr. Draghi was dragging around didn’t seem to spark the desired/expected risk on attitude that many thought it would. Let’s see how the week finishes out tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
