Friends
With a benign PPI number being the only economic data point to deal with this morning, traders seemed uninterested today as stocks traded within a tight range. After a surprisingly good November, the first half of December has been very lackluster at best. Today was basically a draw.
As for today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points to close at 15,755. The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged to finish the day at 1775. Gold was up $12 to trade at $1237 per ounce, while oil was down $1.03 to trade at $96.47 per barrel WTI.
Stock action in the final two weeks of the year will surely be affected by the Fed’s actions (or lack thereof) next week. Should we actually get the beginning of the tapering process announced, the expectations are that stocks will retreat. That is the common belief in the market place at this time. Should the Fed continue to delay the tapering process, one would guess that stocks would welcome the news and rally into year end. These are the expectations, but you know how sometimes markets tend to not fulfill expectations. It never seems to be quite that easy does it? Let’s see how next week unfolds. It should be interesting.
Have a great weekend everyone.
