Friends
Stocks enjoyed another nice advance today, buoyed by good corporate earnings and the absence of distracting headlines. We are believers that this is going to be a good earnings season, and though it is very early (the bulk of the S&P’s earnings will be released over the next 2 weeks), the results are already looking good.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 213 points to finish the day at 24,786. The S&P 500 was up 28 points to close at 2,706. Gold was down a fraction to trade at $1,350 per ounce, while oil was up $.23 to trade at $66.46 per barrel WTI.
Remember, just because earnings are good does not mean that stocks will react positively. We’ve already seen that with some of the money center banks who have reported good earnings, but whose stocks have floundered. As we mentioned in our quarterly, earnings/valuation are not always a catalyst for stocks, but more a measuring stick. So even though we are confident that earnings will be very good over the next couple of weeks, we still aren’t sure how stocks will react. The good news for bulls is that stocks are off the January highs and many individual names have already pulled back in price. Let’s see how earnings season plays out. We’ll keep you informed.
Have a nice evening everyone.
