Friends
Holy Cow! I guess if you had gotten all riled up and sold everything (like some TV pundits would have had you done) on Monday when the Italian circus was taking place, you’d be kicking yourself today. After Monday’s bloodbath, the markets had to take some time to rebuild, right? Well no. After a healthy 116 point Dow rally yesterday, traders tacked on another 175 points to the Dow today to more than erase Monday’s decline. Umm, we’ve talked about the return of volatility lately haven’t we? Behold volatility. After Monday’s declarations that the great correction was upon us, the bulls have basically regained the high ground in just two trading sessions.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 175 points to close at 14,076. The S&P 500 was up 19 points to finish the day at 1516. Gold was down $20 to trade at $1595 per ounce, while oil was up $.22 to trade at $92.85 per barrel WTI. The Dow has cleared 14,000, again, but can the S&P 500 challenge that 1530 resistance level?
On the economic front, the durable goods number this morning was better than expected when you peeled back the onion, and Dr. Bernanke’s second day of testimony (today in front of the House of Representatives), once again reiterated that QE infinity was alive and well. I am not even going to try to guess what the rest of the week has in store for us. Tomorrow is the last day of the month, and February has been just about flat after the good January we had. We’ll see where traders want to position themselves at month end.
Have a nice evening everyone.
