Friends
Relieved that nothing unexpected happened over the weekend in Crimea/Ukraine, stocks rallied strongly in the morning and were able to hold onto most of the gains as the trading session wore on. Whether it was short covering by bears expecting something worse to happen over the weekend, or buying by emboldened bulls the gains were broad based, spread nicely among industry groups.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 181 points to finish the day at 16,247. The S&P 500 was up 17 points to close at 1858. Gold was down $13 to trade at $1366 per ounce, while oil was down $.87 to trade at $98.02 per barrel WTI.
Other than the global political situations that have been garnering the attention of traders for the past few weeks, the FOMC meeting and subsequent press conference on Wednesday by Chairperson Yellen will be the most watched item this week. Other than the Fed meeting we’ll get weekly jobless claims, leading economic indicators and existing home sales on Thursday. Let’s see how the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
