thependulumswings

Friends

Buckle up. This is a big week for corporate earnings as
we’ll hear from Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Travelers, Caterpillar,
Lockheed Martin, Kimberly Clark, Harley Davidson, United Technologies, Coca
Cola, AT&T, Boeing, Ford, 3M, Intel, McDonald’s, and Colgate-Palmolive-
just to mention a few. Then we’ll have another big week for earnings next week
while at the same time an FOMC meeting is happening. So, by the end of the
month, we’ll have a good read on corporate America and we’ll know whether the
Fed has begun to lower interest rates again. It should be a very interesting
couple of weeks.

Other than some strength in the Nasdaq, stocks were mostly
quiet today, perhaps in anticipation of a lot of fireworks coming the next two
weeks. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17 points to close
at 27,171. The S&P 500 was up 8 points to finish the day at 2,985. Gold was
up $1 to trade at $1,427 per ounce, while oil was up $.46 to trade at $56.09
per barrel WTI.

So far it’s been a difficult earnings season to figure out.
Expectations were lowered coming into this earnings season, but stock prices
were sitting at all-time highs. This somewhat confusing set up has led to
market participants wondering just how stocks will react to the releases, and
so far the reactions have been mixed and somewhat muted. Let’s see if anything
breaks loose over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you apprised
of the developments.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim