Friends
As we mentioned yesterday, we don’t have a very busy economic calendar this week but we are subject to headline risk and that is exactly what we got today. Stocks were happily drifting in positive territory early in today’s trading session when the President made comments on the North Korean summit, Chinese influence, and trade which dampened the enthusiasm that arose over the weekend about a potential trade deal with China. Stocks reversed course and headed into negative territory in the later part of the trading session.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 178 points to finish the day at 24,834. The S&P 500 was down 8 points to close at 2,724. Gold was up a fraction to trade at $1,291 per ounce, while oil was down $.34 to trade at $72.01 per barrel WTI.
Though we have seen a steady stream of positive days over the past couple of weeks, the fact is that we still are about as far away from the January highs as we are from the lows in March and April. In other words, until proven otherwise, we are stuck in the trading range we have seen since early in the year. Maybe the bulls can regroup and take a crack at the previous highs in the next couple of weeks, but until then stocks look like they are susceptible to whatever the latest headline is.
Have a nice evening everyone.
