Friends
It was a difficult day for stocks, as despite a better than expected retail sales number released before the open, retail stocks themselves led the market lower. Another day, another round of bad earnings reports in the retail sector. Are consumers not spending, or is every dollar spent going to Amazon only? The other big reason/excuse given for lackluster numbers amongst retailers is that people aren’t spending because of worries over the coming election. Ok, someone’s going to have to convince me on that one. I’m not going to buy a new suit because Trump or Hillary is going to be the next president? Umm, ok.
As for stocks, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 185 points to finish the day at 17,535. The S&P 500 was down 17 points to close at 2046. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1,274 per ounce, while oil was down $.45 to trade at $46.25 per barrel WTI.
As we find ourselves almost halfway through May, the market averages are basically at break even for the year. We’ve seen a lot of movement, first down more than 10% then recovering all of those losses and then some. We’ve spent a whole lot of emotional fuel for a market that has basically gone nowhere, for not just this year, but really since the end of QE back in October of 2014. Are we building a big base from which the next move up will begin, or do we have to go through more pain to work off excesses in valuation. Well first, let’s see what next week has in store for us.
Have a great weekend everyone.
