thependulumswings

Friends

It was a somewhat soft beginning to the week for stocks, as
more than real selling pressure, there simply does not seem to be much of an
appetite to buy. The continuous drumbeat of trade war headlines continues to weigh
on the markets collective psyche while economic data continues to be mixed. We
get more earnings from retailers over the next couple of weeks including Home
Depot tomorrow. We continue to see the department stores struggle, but Walmart
had good numbers last week, and we’ll get a look at Target on Wednesday.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 84 points to finish the day at 25,679. The S&P 500 was down 19
points to close at 2,840. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1,277 per ounce, while
oil was up $.40 to trade at $63.16 per barrel WTI.

The old “sell in May, and go away” adage appears to be
working so far this Spring (as with any old Wall Street adage, you could flip a
coin just as successfully), but as we have noted this month’s weakness could be
attributed to trade headlines as much as any real valuation risk or earnings
weakness. Whatever the reason, stocks have floundered somewhat recently and the
bulls are searching for a reason to buy.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim