Friends
Despite a nice Durable Goods Orders report released this morning, stocks were under pressure from the get-go, mainly affected by weak overseas markets before the opening of trading. Amazon’s disappointing earnings (they actually really don’t produce much in terms of earnings) seemed to set the tone for the trading session, despite the fact that at nearly the halfway point in earnings season, almost 70% of companies have beaten analysts estimates on the bottom line and more than 60% have beaten on the all-important top line.
Nevertheless, for the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 123 points to close at 16,960. The S&P 500 was down 9 points to finish the day at 1978. Gold was up $17 to trade at $1307 per ounce, while oil was down $.18 to trade at $101.89 per barrel WTI.
The tug-of-war between decent domestic corporate earnings and disturbing global headlines is likely to continue for the next couple of weeks, which could add to volatility as these light volume summer trading days unfold. Let’s see what next week has in store.
Have a great weekend everyone.
