Friends
It was no surprise that today was a very quiet trading day. With the Labor Day holiday upon us, the traders that were paying attention today, seemed to have very little interest in taking a stand before the three day weekend. The biggest news story of the day came from overseas where Great Britain raised their terror alert level because of the ISIS threats. Stocks had been slightly in positive territory before Prime Minister David Cameron held a press conference to announce the heightened alert, but went slightly negative after the announcement. The rest of the session saw stocks drift into positive territory.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 18 points to finish the day at 17,098. The S&P 500 was up 6 points to close at 2003. Gold was down $2 to trade at $1288 per ounce, while oil was up $1.32 to trade at $95.87 per barrel WTI.
August, which is often a somewhat difficult month, ends up being a good one for stocks and bonds. Of course, that is what has market participants scratching their heads. Stocks seem to be anticipating a better economy, while bonds seem to be anticipating a weaker one. They both can’t be right. Yes, I know that the Fed has distorted the proceedings, and that can explain some of the confusion, but at some point something has to give.
In the meantime, everyone have a great Labor Day weekend.
