Friends
Last week was the worst week for stocks since 2012. Today prices recovered just a bit. With the bulk of the economic calendar behind us, the final busy week of earnings and a bailout for a Portuguese bank, traders got up the nerve to step in and do some buying when prices dipped in early trading. As the afternoon wore on, the bulls got a little more confidence and stocks ended the day nicely in positive territory.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 75 points to close at 16,569. The S&P 500 was up 13 to finish the day at 1938. Gold was down $5 to trade at $1289 per ounce, while oil was up $.55 to trade at $98.43 per barrel WTI.
After all the economic fireworks last week (2nd quarter GDP, Fed meeting and jobs report), this week should be a bit quieter. Of course, global unrest could affect market action at any moment, so traders will have trouble getting too comfortable. It will be interesting to see if the bears can build on last week’s volatility and price weakness, or will the bulls gather the courage to go bargain hunting? By the way, with about ¾ of the companies having reported, earnings are up better than 9% for the year while revenues are up 5%. With all the hand wringing that happens on a daily basis, that is not bad.
Have a nice evening everyone.
