Friends
The bears marshalled their forces and had the bulls backing off a bit in early trading. But as the trading session wore on, the bulls began to hold their ground and the market averages were able to erase most of the early damage. Of course, politics continue to dominate the headlines, but the jobs report on Friday could be the clincher for the Fed to move at next week’s FOMC meeting. If the Fed holds true to their predictions, we would actually see the Fed funds rate move past 1% later in this year. After years of virtual zero, 1% will feel like a fortune for savers.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 51 points to finish the day at 20,954. The S&P 500 was down 7 points to close at 2,375. Gold was down a fraction to trade at $1,226 per ounce, while oil was down .12 to trade at $53.21 per barrel WTI.
In addition to the non-farm payroll number that we’ll get on Friday, we get the ADP private payroll number on Wednesday and the weekly jobless claims on Thursday. Other than that, it is a slow week on the economic data front, which likely clears the path for a rate hike by the Fed next week (unless, of course, Friday’s non-farm payroll is a disaster). I guess something could happen on the political front to spook the Fed, but we’ll just hope/assume that nothing that drastic is going to occur this week. Stay tuned though, you never know.
Have a nice evening everyone.
