Friends
With a government shutdown just hours away, and a looming debt ceiling battle, investors continued the negative trading pattern we have seen for more than a week now. No, the damage has, in no way, been catastrophic, as we have only given up a few percentage points from the highs of a couple of weeks ago. In addition volume continues to be light, so one could characterize the recent activity as more of a buyers strike than wholesale selling. Nevertheless, the quarter ends with a negative tone, and stocks seem to be at the mercy of the politicians. God help us.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 128 points to close at 15,129. The S&P 500 was down 10 points to finish the day at 1681. Gold was down $10 to trade at $1329 per ounce, while oil was down $.56 to trade at $102.31 per barrel WTI. As we have noted for the past week, no major technical damage has been done just yet, but the bulls better circle the wagons soon, or we will begin to violate some important support levels.
On the economic front (I know, no one seems to care today) the Chicago PMI report was slightly better than expected, as was the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey. It seems like if we could just get the politicians and the Federal Reserve out of the way, this economy would continue to heal itself. We’ll let you know how this all plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
