Friends
Stocks finished a choppy week on a calm note. Despite the rising Covid-19 case numbers around the world, and the lack of a stimulus deal out of Congress, stocks continue to be resilient. The retail sales number this morning was very much better than expected and surprisingly consumer confidence is high. We have the election coming in just two weeks, so that will certainly be front and center, but in the background we will get a plethora of earnings reports from corporate America over the coming weeks.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 112 points to finish the day at 28,606. The S&P 500 was up less than a point to close at 3,483. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 42 points to close at 11,671. Gold was down $5 to trade at $1,903 per ounce, while oil was down $.20 to trade at $40.76 per barrel WTI.
In terms of the election, with former Vice President Biden seemingly ahead in the polls, it appears market participants have either become comfortable with a Biden victory, or they simply don’t believe the polls and feel that the President will pull out another surprise win. Well, I guess we’ll all know soon enough. Stay tuned.
Have a great weekend everyone.
