Friends
Today’s inflation report helped fuel stocks, as what most expected was confirmed. The Consumer Price Index was up .2%. for the month and 3% year over year. Both of those numbers are slightly better than expected. That’s right just a year ago inflation was running at a more than 8% year over year and now has fallen to 3%. The Fed might be entitled to take a victory lap and perhaps they should, but it still appears likely that they are going to continue to push rates slightly higher as they attempt to achieve their stated goal of 2% inflation. Stocks rallied at the open and finished higher for the day, but much of the early gains dissipated throughout the trading session.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 86 points to finish the day at 34,347. The S&P 500 was up 33 points to close at 4,472. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 158 points to close at 13,918. Gold was up $26 to trade at $1,936 per ounce, while oil was up $1.11 to trade at $75.94 per barrel WTI.
As mentioned, stocks did close higher but it felt like a little bit of “sell the news” after the initial upsurge. We’ll see if the bulls will run out of gas a little here and perhaps take a pause while earnings season unfolds. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
