Friends
After five days of losses, stocks rallied from the opening bell today, fueled by comments in Europe that the ECB would likely be willing to buy more Spanish bonds, therefore providing a needed backstop should things continue to deteriorate over there. Last night’s earnings report from Alcoa also set a positive tone as the normally disappointing aluminum company surprised everyone with better than expected numbers. As the day wore on, stocks did lose a little of their luster, but by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was sporting a gain of 89 points to close at 12,805. The S&P 500 was up 10 points to close at 1368. Gold was down $1.70 to finish the day trading around $1659 per ounce, and oil was up $1.57 to finish trading near $102.59 per barrel WTI.
We will get an all-important earnings report from Google after the close tomorrow and then two major banks, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo report on Friday. It’s early, but so far the few companies that have reported seem to have surprised to the upside. Let’s hope that continues, as perhaps expectations have been ratcheted down enough that we can have positive surprises.
The review of the Fed beige book report confirmed moderate economic improvement in many parts of the country, which again will lead to the “is good news good news debate”. We’ll take the good news and let the Fed chips fall where they may.
Have a nice evening everyone.
