Friends
The bulls tried to make it four days in a row, but for the ninth Monday in a row, stocks ended the day in negative territory. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a meager 2 points to close at 13,072. The S&P 500 was down less than a point to finish the day at 1385. Gold was up $3 to trade at $1625 per ounce, and oil was down $.59 to trade at $89.60 per barrel WTI.
On the economic front, this will be a very busy week. Tomorrow, the Federal Open Market Committee meeting begins, and we get news on personal income, Chicago PMI, consumer confidence and the S&P Case-Shiller housing report. On Wednesday we get the ADP employment number, ISM manufacturing report and the FOMC meeting announcement. Thursday we get the weekly jobless claims number and factory orders, and on Friday we get the all-important non-farm payroll number and the ISM non-manufacturing index number. That is all on the domestic front. Of course overseas we’ll get more news out of the ECB on Thursday and whatever else happens during the week on the European front (maybe the Olympics will keep them occupied).
Tomorrow marks the end of the month, which could keep traders quiet temporarily, but come Wednesday, we should see a lot of action. We’ll keep you informed.
Have a nice evening everyone.
