Friends
Well Happy 120th Birthday to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That’s right 120 years ago 12 stocks were combined to create an index that would become the standard bearer for the next century. Sure, today the S&P 500 gives a more accurate account to what is going on in the stock market on a daily basis, but the Dow still has its history and charm (and least to old guys like me). And how did the celebration play out in today’s trading. In a word-yawn.
Stocks did very little after two dynamic days of trading (at least for the bull, anyway), and by the close the Dow was down 23 points to finish the day at 17,828. The S&P 500 was down a fraction to close at 2090. Gold was down $3 to trade at $1,220 per ounce, while oil was down $.25 to trade at $49.31 per barrel WTI. Oil did trade above $50 in early trading but was unable to hold that level.
On the economic front the headline number on durable goods was better than expected, though underneath the hood the results were mixed, while jobless claims fell this week more than expected. As we have mentioned this week, tomorrow we get our second look at 1st quarter GDP, but remember, that is old news at this point. Perhaps we were digesting the previous two session’s gains today. We’ll see how the week finishes out tomorrow before the three day weekend.
Have a nice evening everyone.
