Friends
Stocks were expected to go down today. After all, we are talking about tariffs, protectionism and trade wars. Stocks should have gone down, but of course the stock market has a mind of its own and after a down opening buyers began to appear and stocks methodically grinded higher and higher as the trading session wore on.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 336 points to finish the day at 24,874. The S&P 500 was up 29 points to close at 2,720. Gold was down $3 to trade at $1,320 per ounce, while oil was up $1.37 to trade at $62.62 per barrel WTI.
All eyes will be on Friday’s jobs report, especially the average hourly wage portion, but before that we got this morning’s look at the service sector via the PMI Services Index and the ISM non-manufacturing (service) Index, and the results showed better than expected strength. We’ll get Factory orders tomorrow and the ADP Employment Report (private payrolls) on Wednesday. Perhaps today’s action had to do with the view that the President’s negotiating style is to start big and pare back from there. Or perhaps stocks are just reacting and responding to technical levels. Whatever the case, it should be an interesting week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
