Friends
The bulls made a somewhat half-hearted effort to rally the troops today, and two of the market averages did end the day higher, but buying was sparse and choppy and it felt like the sellers were simply exhausted from yesterday’s action. Nevertheless, at the moment the S&P is down slightly less than 3% off its all-time high. The Nasdaq on the other hand is down more than 5% off its high. Indeed, the big growth names have been the worst performers in the last few weeks. It will be interesting to see if that continues (if rates continue to rise that would seem likely) or will market participants look to buy these names cheaper than they have been for some months?
As for the market averages, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 90 points to finish the day at 34,390. The S&P 500 was up 6 points to close at 4,359. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 34 points to close at 14,512. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1,724 per ounce, while oil was down $.46 to trade at $74.83 per barrel WTI.
The quarter ends tomorrow and after a good first half of the year, the 3rd quarter is turning out to be somewhat of a dud for stocks. Volatility has been heightened but manageable. Let’s see how the quarter finishes out tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
