Friends
Stocks broke their 3 day losing streak and gained enough ground to almost erase the early in the year losses. Unless tomorrow produces a big move either way, the first 5 days of trading may end up not giving much indication of direction for the market. The next indicator that traders focus on is the January effect. More importantly, we’ll be receiving important economic news in the next few days, as well as kick off earnings season.
As for today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 105 points to close at 16,530. The S&P 500 was up 11 points to finish the day at 1837. Gold was down $6 to trade at $1231 per ounce, while oil was up $.40 to trade at $93.83 per barrel WTI.
Tomorrow we’ll get the ADP private payroll number for December, and on Friday the government non-farm payroll number. More importantly, earnings season will kick in shortly, and I am very curious to see how fairly priced stocks are perceived to be. Pundits always proclaim that this is the most important earnings season in recent times, but I think this one really is important, and could set the tone for the first part of the year. With less focus on the Fed for now, corporate earnings may be the main determinant going forward. We’ll be watching.
Have a nice evening everyone.
