Friends

It was a pretty busy start to what promises to be a very interesting week. Hopefulness about a positive direction with Iran sent oil prices lower and stocks higher at the open. For the most part the market averages couldn’t hold the gains and the sloppiness we have seen for weeks now reared its ugly head again today. I would guess that today’s volatility is just a warmup for the coming days. We have an FOMC meeting Tuesday and Wednesday and my guess is that we will not see any change in interest rates. But we have a more mysterious Fed Chair now, so nothing is certain. We also have a big week for earnings with reports from Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Meta just to name a few. And with regards to Iran, I don’t even know what to think about that anymore. Let’s hope things are heading in a better direction than last week but again, who knows.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 262 points to finish the day at 52,209. The S&P 500 was up 1 point to close at 7,413. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 43 points to close at 24,932. Gold was up $18 to trade at $4,089 per ounce, while oil was down $7.12 to trade at $82.19 per barrel WTI.

Buckle up, it is likely to be a very interesting week of trading.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim