The Buzz on Business for April 18th, 2024

The question, the most important question on the minds of traders and investors is this: Do April showers bring May flowers? Because to mix a metaphor, they’ve all been crying down on Wall Street.

In the thirteen trading sessions since April 1^st, there have been only two up days for the Dow Jones Industrials, which have lost about 5% so far this month. The numbers are similar for the other major indexes.

Likewise, bonds have sold off in April as interest rates have risen about forty basis points.

Obviously, inflation worries bear much of the blame, but we’re beginning to see some weakness in the economy as well.

A 5% reduction in stock prices is barely worth noticing, and we could be back to new all-time highs by this time next week. Hopefully, that is the case. But markets will often tell us a story if we will just listen. We can’t help but wonder, or is it worry, what they are telling us now.

Stock Market Report

Nothing but red numbers on the Giant Quote Machine here at World Headquarters yesterday afternoon. We’re going to put a screenshot in the show notes. Stocks were down. Interest rates were down. Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin were down. Volume was way down as advancing and declining stocks battled to an even draw.

• The Dow Jones Industrials were down 46 points. That’s one-tenth of 1%, and it closed at 37,754.
• The S&P 500 was down 29 points. That’s six-tenths of 1% and it closed at 5,022.
• The techs had a tougher go of things. The NASDAQ Composite was off 1.2%, that’s 182 points, and it closed at 15,683.
• The Russell 2000 was down 1%. That’s twenty Russell 2000 points, and it closed at 1,948.

Bond Market Report

Interest rates were down pretty much across the board on Wednesday.

• The 2-year Treasury closed with a yield of 4.930%. That’s down three basis points.
• The 20-year was down six ticks and now yields 4.820%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil was down $3.06. And the barrel will now set you back $82.16.
• Gold was off $18.20 and closed back below 2,400 at $2,388.20 a troy ounce.
• Bitcoin was down again. That’s four straight down days for Bitcoin. It closed at $61,097.22 off $1,691.82.

Earnings Good So Far

Twelve public companies reported earnings on Wednesday. All but three met or exceeded expectations. It’s a bit early yet, but first-quarter earnings look to be coming in strong. So far, so good.

Nothing much on the economic calendar yesterday, but today will be busy. We get initial and continuing jobless claims, as we do every Thursday. We get the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s Manufacturing Index. Manufacturing has been making a bit of a comeback in recent months after two moribund years. Existing Home Sales are due out. And Federal Reserve Board members Bowman, Williams, and Bostic all give speeches today.

We will do what we do and have it all for you tomorrow. All you need to do is keep it right here on The Buzz.