DOW + 109 = 17,265
SPX + 9 = 2011
NAS + 31 = 4593
10 YR YLD + .03 = 2.63%
OIL – 1.40 = 93.02
GOLD + 1.60 = 1225.80
SILV un = 18.62
Stock moved higher for a third day. Record high closes for the Dow and the S&P 500. The Dow notched its 17th record close of the year; the S&P posted its 34th record high close for the year. The stock market is in Fed mode. The Fed wrapped up their policy meeting yesterday, and they didn’t scare anybody; they even gave added assurance that they will be overly communicative. Interest rates are probably going to go up in the future but not at any specific time that can be identified. The Fed stuck with the phrase “considerable time†which is a great way to speak words that contain absolutely no meaning. Brilliant, brilliant performance in euphemistic ambiguity.
And even if the Fed tightens, the rest of the world’s central banks are getting looser, and it just figures that some of that will spill over to Wall Street. The ECB lowered rates so much that they’ve gone negative. Just the other day, the People’s Bank of China pumped about $80 billion into five banks.
The number of investment advisors that are bearish is at the lowest level since 1987. When bears start to dwindle to extremely low levels it’s often viewed as a contrarian signal on Wall Street; the Investors intelligence sentiment index now stands at 14.1%, the lowest level of bears since January 1987, when the index stood at 13.3%. The more extreme the reading, either to the bearish side or bullish side, the greater the likelihood the market moves in the opposite direction. History warns that the lack of bears warrants attention.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 280,000 for the week ended September 13th. This hints at the idea that the weak August jobs report might be an aberration.
The Commerce Department said housing starts fell 14.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted 956,000-unit annual pace last month. But July’s starts were revised to show a 1.12-million unit rate, the highest level since November 2007.
