Friends
Seasonably, September has a bad reputation when it comes to stock performance. Add that to new tariffs going into effect over the weekend and we got a good recipe for a down market on the first trading day of the month. The tone of the market is very bearish at the moment with market participants wary of trade wars and continuous recession talk. Interest rates around the world continue to tumble and here at home the 10 year Treasury note is now yielding a paltry 1.47% and apparently falling.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 285 points to finish the day at 26,118. The S&P 500 was down 20 points to close at 2,906. Gold was up $23 to trade at $1,552 per ounce, while oil was down $1.05 to trade at $54.05 per barrel WTI.
So, we enter the most difficult month or two for stocks on a seasonable basis, plus we have weakening data like today’s ISM manufacturing number and challenging headlines with regards to tariffs/trade. On the other hand we enter September almost assured that the Fed will cut interest rates at the 2 day meeting that ends on the 18th of the month. We’ll get a look at service sector activity with Thursday’s ISM non-manufacturing number and of course it’s jobs week with the non-farm payroll number on Friday. Stay tuned, it will be a busy, though shortened week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
