Friends
Stocks suffered their worst trading session of the year so far. Was the reason the political theater that we were subject to over the weekend? Will the President get back to focusing on tax reform and economic growth? Perhaps, but one could add to that anxiety over the plethora of earnings reports that we’ll get this week, the two day FOMC meeting that begins tomorrow, and the dismal GDP number that we got last Friday. Of course, the Dow 30,000 headline on this week’s Barron’s magazine could be interpreted as an obvious kiss of death.
Anyway, for the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 122 points to close at 19,971. The S&P 500 was down 13 points to finish the day at 2,280. Gold was up $7 to trade at $1,198 per ounce, while oil was down $.49 to trade at $52.68 per barrel WTI.
Market pundits are expecting rate hikes this year, but it doesn’t appear that the consensus is that the Fed will raise rates at this week’s meeting. It would seem that after December’s rate hike that Fed Chair Yellen and Company might want to see how the first 100 days of the new administration play out before getting more hawkish. Remember, Friday’s 4th quarter GDP number was a disappointment, so a little more evidence that growth is accelerating would seem to be in order before embarking on additional rate hikes.
Of course, we have a lot of corporate earnings to chew on this week, and it appears that politics will be a part of the investment fabric for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned – we’ll let you know how this week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
