Friends
Stocks were under selling pressure at the open, but as we have seen for some time now, a headline can change market direction on a dime. News that auto tariffs would be delayed for some months caused early stock market weakness turn into some late morning strength. Not much happened in the final few hours of the trading session, but the possibility of another difficult day for stocks was avoided, at least for today.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 115 points to finish the day at 25,648. The S&P 500 was up 16 points to close at 2,850. Gold was up $1 to trade at $1,296 per ounce, while oil was up $.45 to trade at $62.23 per barrel WTI.
Aside from headlines about China trade disputes and other political machinations, economic data continues to be mixed at best. Yes, employment numbers continue to be good, but things like retail sales continue to be less than stellar. The worry is that concerns about trade wars could feed into the “recession is near” narrative and actually help cause an economic slowdown. The poor Fed simply has no idea what to do at this point, but that doesn’t keep market participants from trying to predict the Fed’s path for future rate decisions. Simply put, no one knows at this point, and the bulls and the bears are left to fight it out over headlines and economic data points.
Have a nice evening everyone.
