Friends
The bulls just had too much lined up against them today- a hotter than expected employment report, Apple downgraded by an influential analyst, hawkish comments from Fed officials, squeamish comments from Elon Musk and rising oil prices. Stocks fell at the open and remained firmly in negative territory throughout the trading session.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 348 points to finish the day at 32,899. The S&P 500 was down 68 points to close at 4,108. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 304 points to close at 12,012. Gold was down $17 to trade at $1,853 per ounce, while oil was up $3.38 to trade at $120.25 per barrel WTI.
It’s such a difficult environment for stocks to gain a real foothold at the moment. As I mentioned earlier in the week, we might just have to be satisfied with little victories wherever we can find them at the moment. It wasn’t a good week for stocks, but at least we didn’t give back all of last week’s gains. As I’ve said ad nauseam, the reset of stocks and bond prices given the Fed’s pivot to fight inflation is going to take some time to play out. Next Friday’s CPI will be a focus point for market participants, so stay tuned for that. But for now, be patient, be calm, and let the process unfold. We’ll be with you all the way.
Have a great weekend everyone.
