Friends

Watching Fed Chair Powell testify before the Senate Banking Committee this morning, I concluded that they should just put a cardboard cutout of the Chairman at the table while the Senators bloviate to the cameras. They know he won’t/can’t comment on political pontifications, so really what is the point? Tomorrow it’s the House Financial Services Committee for the Chairman, which is like listening to characters from the bar scene in the original Star Wars movie. The good news is that we watch this stuff, so you don’t have to.

Anyway, we get a look at the CPI inflation numbers tomorrow and the PPI on Thursday. Today stocks were mixed and by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 123 points to finish the day at 44,593. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to close at 6,068. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 70 points to close at 19,643. Gold was down $7 to trade at $2,926 per ounce, while oil was up $.93 to trade at $73.25 per barrel WTI.

We have a slight upward bias to the markets so far this year, but as expected there are as many headwinds as there are tailwinds for stocks to deal with at the moment. Let’s see what the inflation data tells us tomorrow.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim