Friends
Stocks were having a nice day to begin with, after yesterday’s sell off and the announcement of a good housing starts number early this morning, but when the President appeared midday to announce that the “gang of six” senators might have a budget deal, the market soared to close with a gain of 202 Dow points. Of course, it would be premature to assume that this “deal” is for real or would even pass the houses, but at least it gives the indication that the politicians realize how important this is and are beginning to compromise.
Earnings have been good so far this week with notable numbers from IBM, Coca Cola and Harley Davidson just to mention a few. Of course Apple is the one everyone is anxious to see (especially since Google just blew analysts away with their earnings), and after the close, Apple just destroyed earnings estimates. The bottom line and revenue numbers were unreal. As I have said before, its Apple’s world, we just live in it.
The S&P 500 closed at 1326 for the day, right in the middle of our 1300 to 1350 trading range. Again, we’ll watch to see if the political picture can continue to become clearer, because without it, it would be unlikely that we would break through the upside of the range. We’ll keep an eye on the political front and of course we’ll have a whole lot more earnings reports to deal with as the week goes on. We’ll let you know if anything important happens.
Have a nice evening everyone.
