Friends
Stocks took a breather today after several days of gains, and it would seem to be an appropriate time and place for a pause. Stocks were back to looking a bit stretched, given the somewhat bleak level of earnings that corporate America has been delivering. During this very active week for earnings reports, we are getting more disappointments than not, yet stocks, in general, had seen plenty of sponsorship from market participants.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 113 points to finish the day at 17,982. The S&P 500 was down 10 points to close at 2091. Gold was down $3 to trade at $1,250 per ounce, while oil was down $.65 to trade at $43.53 per barrel WTI.
Today’s earnings disappointments included Dow components Verizon and Travelers. Both had experienced a nice share price advance heading into their earnings report, so disappointments tend to be punished a bit more. Under Armour on the other hand exceeded expectations and was one of the best performers in the market today.
The modest rise in interest rates over that past few trading sessions has affected in a negative way utilities, staples and other bond type substitutes, which had been the big winners so far this year. The beneficiary of the tick up in rates has been shares of bank stocks who desperately crave higher interest rates to help improve their margins. More earnings after the close, so stay tuned and we’ll let you know how the week finishes out tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
