Friends

I mentioned yesterday that market participants might wake up this morning and have a different view about what went down yesterday. Well, for at least one day investors decided to buy stocks. Yes, oil prices were down a little and bond yields backed off a little too, but I think that traders wanted to buy the dip which has occurred in the past couple of weeks.

By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 316 points to finish the day at 51,778. The S&P 500 was up 85 points to close at 7,637. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 439 points to close at 26,418. Gold was down $3 to trade at $4,384 per ounce, while oil was down $1.20 to trade at $101.23 per barrel.

Let’s see if the bulls can finish the week on a positive note by adding to today’s modest gains. But oil prices and bond yields need to stop rising for any up move in stocks to last more than a trading session or two. We’ll let you know how the week finishes up.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim