Friends

It appears that the markets had a hangover from the holiday weekend. Rising oil prices continues to be a headwind that the bulls can’t deal with at the moment. In addition, the Fed is set to meet next week and at the moment, traders are pricing in a 60% chance that there will be a quarter point rate hike announced at the end of the meeting. Of course, this week’s inflation data will go a long way in determining whether a rate hike is appropriate at the moment. We’ll get the PPI on Thursday and then the CPI on Friday, which is kind of reversed as the CPI often comes out before the PPI. Whatever the case, these inflation reads will be watched very closely.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 628 points to finish the day at 52,786. The S&P 500 was down 45 points to close at 7,673. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 85 points to close at 26,421. Gold was down $64 to trade at $4,411 per ounce, while oil was up $1.72 to trade at $93.20 per barrel WTI.

Inflation data will likely be the story this week. Let’s see how the markets absorb it all.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim