Friends
After last week’s late surge, stocks began the week with very little direction. The market averages spent most of the trading session slightly in negative territory but without any real conviction. Acts of terror like we saw in London over the weekend seem to have less and less effect on trading action, which in a way is good and in another way almost sad. Both the ISM non-manufacturing index and the PMI Services index showed decent strength with today’s releases, but the factory orders number was weak. The rest of the week is somewhat quiet on the economic front as we wait for the FOMC meeting to begin on the 13th.
As for stocks, by the close the Dow Jones industrial Average was down 22 points to finish the day at 21,184. The S&P 500 was down 2 points to close at 2,436. Gold was up $1 to trade at $1,282 per ounce, while oil despite Middle East unrest was down $.29 to trade at $47.37 per barrel WTI.
Most likely politics and congressional hearings are going to dominate the headlines this week. Whether stocks react to it all remains to be seen. We’ll let you know how the week unfolds.
Have a nice evening everyone.
