Friends
Stocks saw a wonderful reversal today as early morning weakness was bought by market participants moving stocks nicely higher by the close of trading (other than Nasdaq which still remained in negative territory). On a technical basis, stocks tested the mid-March lows and bounced nicely off of those levels. What I have been hoping for is that negative sentiment has already priced in tariff disruption but of course it’s still a day-by-day process. But for one day anyway, the March lows held on this most recent test and the bulls did some buying while the bears covered some shorts.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 417 points to finish the day at 42,001. The S&P 500 was up 30 points to close at 5,611. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 23 points to close at 17,299. Gold was up $41 to trade at $3,155 per ounce, while oil was up $2.13 to trade at $71.49 per barrel. WTI.
In the end it was a very choppy quarter and a difficult one for equity investors. But, as I have been pointing out, other than the very extended, pricey big growth/tech names, it really wasn’t that bad a quarter for stocks in general. It is very likely during this upcoming earnings season that companies will be cautious in their earnings calls with analysts as tariff visibility is mostly opaque at the moment. But, given the volatility I would say that the bulls survived the first quarter and live to fight another day.
Have a nice evening everyone.
Jim
