Friends
Stocks were off to a quiet start this morning with a slightly upward bias, when the news hit that the Summit meeting with the North Koreans was called off by the President. In what seemed like slow motion, stocks tumbled more than 250 Dow points. But, at about 11:00 our time, the President spoke before a bill signing, and stocks halted their decline and began to work off some of the losses.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 75 points to finish the day at 24,811. The S&P 500 was down 5 points to close at 2,727. Gold was up $15 to trade at $1,305 per ounce, while oil was down $1.13 to trade at $70.71 per barrel WTI.
Again, markets continue to react to headlines, but when all is said and done we still are firmly stuck in our well defined trading range- about 5% above our lows for the year and about 5% below our highs of the year. Inflation continues to be a hot topic of debate, as yesterday’s reactions to the Fed minutes reminded us. Will there be 2 or 3 more rate hikes this year? The 10 year Treasury note has slipped back below 3%, so are inflation fears now muted? For now, let’s see how the week finishes out as we head into the Memorial Day weekend.
Have a nice evening everyone.
