Friends,
The grind into the holidays continues. After a slew of economic numbers, including a flat CPI number this morning, the domestic economic picture, indeed, looks a lot better than most experts would have guessed six months ago. You remember all the calls for a double dip recession and a worsening employment picture. Well, double dip has been taken off the table for now (of course an implosion in Europe or China could change things) and the employment picture, while not good, is definitely getting better. We’ve seen improvement in manufacturing, and believe it or not, we’ve seen a strengthening in consumer confidence. But, of course, the domestic improvement is being overshadowed by headline risk coming out of Europe, seemingly every day. As a matter of fact, there is rumor that we may get downgrades by S&P on some European countries as soon as this evening.
In the meantime, stocks continued a lackluster week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2 points to finish the day at 11,866. The S&P 500 was up 3 points to close at 1219. Gold bounced back a little, after this week’s mauling, and finished the day up $21 per ounce to close near $1598. Oil, another one of this week’s casualties, bounced back also as WTI crude prices were up $.21 per barrel to close at $94.08. Any hopes of a year-end rally are temporarily trapped in technical no-man’s land with the Dow lurking under the 12,000 level and the S&P stuck between 1200 and 1265. There are still a couple of weeks left for Santa to deliver us some presents, but recent activity has not shown any indication that he’ll be able to do so. Investors remain parked on the sidelines willing to accept negative real returns, and traders seem to just want to get the year over with.
Have a great weekend everyone.
