Friends
Market participants are focused on this week’s inflation reports. We get the Producer Price Index on Wednesday which measures price at the wholesale level, and then we get the Consumer Price Index on Thursday which measures prices on the retail level. The CPI number is the one that gets the most headlines. In the meantime, stocks did recover from some midday losses, after remarks from J P Morgan’s Jamie Dimon that recession is coming, but still tumbled into the close. We already know that and have likely been in a slowdown for months now. Only the labor situation is masking the other issues that the economy is experiencing.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 93 points to close at 29,202. The S&P 500 was down 27 points to finish the day at 3,612. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 110 points to close at 10,542. Gold was down $34 to trade at $1,675 per ounce, while oil was down $1.78 to trade at $ 90.86 per barrel WTI.
We will start to move into earnings season later this week and will be fully immersed by next week. In the meantime, let’s see how bad the inflation numbers are this week. The Fed seems determined to get the Fed Funds rate to 4.5% (likely by the end of the year), so these reports are essential to determining that process. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
