Friends
As the “trade wars” with China ratchet up, stocks have been heading south. No, it hasn’t been a bloodbath, but the rally that the bulls were putting together a couple of weeks ago has disappeared for the time being. Big industrial names like Boeing and Caterpillar suffered the most damage and accounted for much of the decline in the Dow.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 287 points to finish the day at 24,700. The S&P 500 was down 11 points to close at 2,762. Gold was down $2 to trade at $1,278 per ounce, while oil was down $.75 to trade at $65.10 per barrel WTI.
The tariff talk has fueled a surge in bond prices as the yield on the 10 year Treasury note has sunk back to the 2.88% level. The feeling might be that trade wars will cool down, if not totally throttle the economy and thus allow interest rates to fall back to levels we have seen in the recent past before the economy was this robust. The bulls are in a difficult spot right now, but will the bears be able to capitalize. Let’s see how the rest of the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
