Friends
Fed Chair Yellen’s testimony was a bit of a news maker, but traders seemed uninterested as volatility was light and stocks barely moved throughout the session. In her written statement, Ms. Yellen mentioned some frothiness is High Yield Bonds and some of the more speculative areas of the stock market namely small cap biotech and social media stocks. Now, Ms. Yellen didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know, but having it spotlighted by the Fed was somewhat unusual. Nevertheless, stocks mainly drifted throughout the afternoon.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 points to finish the day at 17,060. The S&P 500 was down 3 points to close at 1973. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1294 per ounce, while oil was down $.98 to trade at $99.93 per barrel WTI.
It is still early in earnings season, but so far so good. We have seen better than expected numbers from banks, and that has set a positive tone as the season just gets rolling. We’ll monitor not only the actual earnings themselves, but how stocks react to those reports. As always, it’s a good way to see if stocks are price appropriately. If expectations are high, even good earnings can send a stock down and vice versa. We’ll be monitoring the tone of this earnings seasons as much as the actual numbers. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
