Wednesday, July 30, 2008
False Rally....
After Monday's major decline the markets recovered all their losses Tuesday on the back of a decline in oil prices and bounce in financial stocks. The Dow added 266.48 points to close the session at 11,397.56. The SPX gained 28.83 points to close at1,263.20. We still have no play on.
Despite news of more write downs from Merrill Lynch the financial sector all saw major rises yesterday.
On the economic front news that consumer confidence rose more than expected in July was a positive for stocks. The Conference Board reported that its index on consumer confidence came in at 51.9, which was better than estimates for a reading closer to 50.0. However, with the jobs report due out Friday, data on employment is getting a lot of attention and this was a weak spot in the confidence report. Those saying jobs are plentiful fell 6-tenths to 13.5 percent with those seeing jobs as hard to get rising to 30.3 percent, a gain of 6-tenths.
Energy prices are still having a major impact on consumer sentiment so the markets were happy to see crude prices fall further on Tuesday. Crude futures for September fell $2.54 a barrel to $122.19. Crude prices hit lows not seen in nearly three months with the contract reaching a low at $120.75 intraday. Comments from OPEC President Chakib Khelil that oil prices are “abnormal” and could pull back to $80 helped push oil lower, as did strength in the dollar following the consumer confidence release.
As for us you can see a real tussle between bulls and bears....with the bears having it on Monday and the Bulls today. It will be interesting to see what happens today and then see whats out there.
Until next time.
Despite news of more write downs from Merrill Lynch the financial sector all saw major rises yesterday.
On the economic front news that consumer confidence rose more than expected in July was a positive for stocks. The Conference Board reported that its index on consumer confidence came in at 51.9, which was better than estimates for a reading closer to 50.0. However, with the jobs report due out Friday, data on employment is getting a lot of attention and this was a weak spot in the confidence report. Those saying jobs are plentiful fell 6-tenths to 13.5 percent with those seeing jobs as hard to get rising to 30.3 percent, a gain of 6-tenths.
Energy prices are still having a major impact on consumer sentiment so the markets were happy to see crude prices fall further on Tuesday. Crude futures for September fell $2.54 a barrel to $122.19. Crude prices hit lows not seen in nearly three months with the contract reaching a low at $120.75 intraday. Comments from OPEC President Chakib Khelil that oil prices are “abnormal” and could pull back to $80 helped push oil lower, as did strength in the dollar following the consumer confidence release.
As for us you can see a real tussle between bulls and bears....with the bears having it on Monday and the Bulls today. It will be interesting to see what happens today and then see whats out there.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 5:23 AM 
