Friends
As expected, it was a wild day of trading after the news that the Russians had invaded Ukraine last night. Stocks fell at the open with the Dow down more than 800 points at its worst this morning. But as the day wore on it appeared that market participants finally felt that there was a buying opportunity in front of them and buyers pushed stocks into positive territory by the close. Especially impressive was the large tech names that sold off early but came back strong. Apple, for instance dropped to $152 per share early in the morning only to close above $162. Oil prices which had spiked early settled back some and bonds and gold which had rallied dramatically early gave up those gains also.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 92 points to finish the day at 33,223. The S&P 500 was up 63 points to close at 4,288. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 436 points to close at 13,473. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1,897 per ounce, while oil was up $1.30 to trade at $93.40 per barrel WTI.
I’m not sure that I would read too much into today’s action. Even in difficult times you tend to get dramatic rallies along the way. The Russian situation will take time to unfold and there are likely to be many difficult moments ahead. But, for today at least, the markets held together. Let’s see how the week finishes out tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
