Friends
Despite a strong Chicago PMI number, an upwardly revised 4th quarter GDP number (though barely), and a decent weekly jobless claims number, the quick ramping up of prices over the past two trading session simply ran out of steam today. Traders seemed content to stand pat with the hand that they were holding as the month of February came to end. Oh, we were within shouting distance of the old 2007 high in the Dow by early afternoon, but by the close any buying momentum had run its course.
At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21 points to finish the day and the month at 14,054. The S&P 500 was down 1 point to close at 1514. Gold was down $17 to trade at $1579 concluding a difficult month for the precious metal, while oil, which has continued its decline, was down $.87 to trade at $91.89 (falling oil prices should be good for consumers, right?).
Despite all the hype about the Dow reaching a new all-time high, traders seemed a bit exhausted and just happy to get the month over with. Tomorrow ends the week but begins a new month of trading, so we’ll see if the bulls can muster the energy to take another run at the old Dow highs. After a stellar January, February was basically pretty flat so it will be interesting to see how March unfolds. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
