Friends
After all the excitement yesterday about reaching new highs in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it would not have been surprising to see stocks take a pause today, but though trading was quiet, stocks remained in positive territory for the entire trading session. Leading the way was an ADP report that private payrolls increased by 198,000 new jobs. While less than last month, the number was at the high end of the expected range. Of course, Friday is the all-important government non-farm payroll number which will likely set the tone for the following week’s trading.
As for today, the Dow was up 42 points to finish the day at 14,296. The S&P 500 was up 1 point to close at 1541. Gold was up $7 to trade at $1582 per ounce, while oil was down $.42 to trade at $90.40 per barrel WTI.
Of course, each day we close higher at this point it is a new high in the Dow, so we won’t pull out the party hats every day, but the S&P has yet to violate its previous high, and as I mentioned yesterday, NASDAQ may never see 5000 again in my lifetime. Whatever the case, though stocks are climbing in a deliberate manner, there really is no evidence of a “blow-off” top, where panicked buyers throw all caution to the wind and buy everything at any price. Our anecdotal evidence is that many individuals are still wary of the stock market and have yet to dip their toe back in the water. Two 50% downturns in less than 10 years tend to have an emotional effect on folks. I’m not sure some will ever get over that.
Let’s see how the rest of the week proceeds. Have a nice evening everyone.
