Friends,
The first two days of the week, Mr. Market tried to take our October gains away from us. The last two days, he’s decided to give us back a little of that upward momentum. Today’s gains were fueled once again from European news, and specifically news out of Greece, that they will not go forward with the referendum on the bailout plan. This coupled with a surprise quarter point rate cut from the new head of the ECB, an Italian named Mario Draghi, emboldened traders to buy right at the open and stocks enjoyed a nice day for the bulls. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day up 208 points to get back over the 12000 level and close at 12044. The S&P 500 finished up 23 points to close at 1261. Gold also benefited from the “risk on” day and was up $35 to close over $1764. Oil also rose more than a $1.50 to finish over $94 per barrel WTI.
Markets continue to be whipsawed by events out of Europe, and it’s hard to imagine that it won’t continue for a while, but tomorrow we will get a snapshot of the employment picture as the non-farm payroll number is released. Traders are expecting about 100,000 new jobs, so let’s see what the number is and how stocks react to it.
In the meantime, volatility continues, but at least with an upward bias as of late. We’ll let you know how things develop tomorrow. Have a nice evening everyone.
