Friends
Trading was very light today as market participants await news from central bankers tomorrow and Thursday. First up is the announcement from the FOMC meeting tomorrow which will inform traders as to any new direction that the Fed may take. Then, on Thursday, we get to see what ECB president Mario Draghi has up his sleeve. Then, of course, on Friday we get the non-farm payroll number, so today’s somewhat quiet action is not surprising.
On the economic front, we got a better than expected consumer confidence number as well as a surprisingly decent Chicago PMI number (oh no, does this good news derail the QE3 train?) this morning. We’ll see what Dr. Bernanke has up his sleeve tomorrow, but I wouldn’t expect too much (hope the market doesn’t expect too much).
As for today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted down 64 points to close at 13,008 (just held 13,000 for the month end). The S&P 500 was down 6 points to finish the day at 1379. Gold was down $6.60 to trade at $1617 per ounce, while oil was down $2.21 to trade at $87.57 per barrel WTI. For the month of July, stocks ended with about a 1% gain.
The Fed announcement tomorrow afternoon will start the fun. We’ll see what the central bankers have in store for us this week. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
