The Closing Look
Stock Market Commentary:
Stocks rallied on Thursday after investors made their way past Wednesday’s Fed meeting and digested the latest round of earnings and economic data. Facebook (FB), PayPal (PYPL) and Under Armour (UA) were some stocks that rallied after reporting numbers on Thursday. Meanwhile, eBay (EBAY), Harmon (HAR), and Service Now (NOW) gapped down after reporting numbers. Economic data was mixed: Durable Goods fell -5.1%, missing estimates for a 0.2% gain. Jobless claims came in at 278k, beating estimates for 285k. Pending home sales rose to 106.8, just beating estimates for 106.7. The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index fell to -9 which shows is not healthy.
Gary’s Thoughts: In the aftermarket, Amazon down about $85 after being up $50 today. We are writing this at 11 pm and just found out another maniac at the Bank Of Japan just went to negative interest rates. Japan has had easy money and 0% rates forever and it never ends. They keep repeating the same mistake over and over just like the rest of the central banks. Of course, the initial reaction was to buy stock as the yen tanks. But not sure this lasts. We remain off of last week’s lows but the assinine jagged action continues.
Not sure a strong dollar will help the small caps, i.e. the likes of the Russel, will watch that at the open, but it is month end, so sell off into strength may not happen today. If sell off occurs 1st week of Feb, this still has 2008 uncanniness written all over it.