Friends
So, today’s release of the Fed minutes from the December FOMC meeting showed that Fed officials are looking at rate cuts at some point, but there is no real consensus on when that will happen. And for the second day in a row the Nasdaq led stocks lower. Not a good start for the bulls to 2024 so far.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 284 points to finish the day at 37,430. The S&P 500 was down 38 points to close at 4,704. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 173 points to close at 14,592. Gold was down $24 to trade at $2,049 per ounce, while oil was up $2.66 to trade at $73.04 per barrel WTI.
After the big move higher into year-end it’s not really surprising to see some profit taking early on in the first few days of trading. Remember, many were waiting for year-end for tax purposes to sell. Also, as we discussed, there was a Goldilocks type of narrative forming at year-end and the bears are more than ready to try to punch holes in all of that. Basically, nothing really unusual to start the year given were we started from.
Have a nice evening everyone.
