Friends

Though some of the big tech names struggled, it was another pretty good day for the bulls. The S&P continues to push higher and is now less than 4% from the February highs. On the retail front, Walmart had pretty good earnings but did indicate that tariffs will likely cause them to raise some prices later this year. After a strong number in March, April’s retail sales number showed just a 0.1% gain. People did a lot of buying in anticipation of higher prices it appears in March.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 271 points to finish the day at 42,322. The S&P 500 was up 24 points to close at 5,916. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 34 points to close at 19,112. Gold was up $45 to trade at $3,233 per ounce, while oil was down $1.40 to trade at $61.75 per barrel WTI.

Volatility has quieted down while the market averages have pushed deliberately higher over the past couple of weeks. Let’s see how the week finishes out tomorrow.

Have a nice evening everyone.