Buzz on Business for Friday, January 26^th, 2024

All of us here at World Headquarters were huddled around the Telescreens before the opening bell yesterday, awaiting the raft of economic news that was due out at 8:30 am ET. Our first reaction once it hit the wire?

Oh Oh. It’s gonna be a rough day on Wall Street today.

Stock Market Report

Stocks rallied at the open. The news was mixed, and we’ll detail it all in a minute. But an hour into the session, the selling began, and we thought for sure, our view was about to be vindicated.

We were wrong!

Stocks rallied into the close, and red numbers turned green up and down the Giant Quote Machine.

• The Dow Jones Industrials had a great day. They were up six-tenths of a percent and closed at 38,049, a gain of 243 points.
• The S&P 500 was up five-tenths of a percent, that’s 26 points, and it closed at 4,894.
• The Nasdaq Composite had a little rougher go of it. Still, it gained two-tenths on the session and closed at 15,510, up 29 points.
• The RSP was up one full percentage point. The SOXL was up most of the day but finished with a loss of eight-tenths of a percent.

Bond Market Report

Interest rates were down, and bonds were up on Thursday.

• The 2-year treasury closed at 4.299%. That’s off about nine basis points.
• The yield on the 20-year was off five ticks, and it closed at 4.480%

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil definitely seems to be in rally mode now. It was up $1.73 and closed at $77.04 a barrel.
• Gold was up a minuscule $1.80, and it closed at $2017.80.
• We think we’ve got the Bitcoin pricing thing squared away and have figured out a way to get the Giant Quote Machine to synthetically close trading at 4:00 PM ET so we can give you a consistent number from day to day. Will it work? Who knows? Not us!
• Anyway, Bitcoin did trade back above $40,000 but closed at 39,981, off $108.

Green Across the Board, Except for One Red Tesla

Earnings Season seems to be off to a good start. Mostly green numbers on the Giant Quote Machine these days. Given 3M and Netflix, we’re not so sure it makes any difference.

It did make a difference to Tesla, which reported Wednesday after the close and missed big on sales and profits. The stock, which, before the earnings report, had been off about fifty percent from its all-time high, got crushed. It gapped down at the open and traded lower all day before finishing off over 12% on the session. I guess expectations matter, after all.

Economic Reports come in Mixed, PCE on Tap

Speaking of expectations, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims both disappointed. As did Building Permits. These were the numbers that caused us to think markets might sell-off on Thursday.

But, traders chose instead to focus on the the fact that Gross Domestic Product came in above expectations. The economy grew at a 3.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter versus expectations of 2.0%. 3.3% isn’t gangbusters, but it ain’t bad, and it’s going in the right direction.

This morning everyone here at the Ministry of Truth will be once again gathered around the telescreens awaiting the Personal Consumption Expenditure Index. The PCE is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. Recall that the CPI numbers came in a little above expectations last week. . .

We will have all of it for you here on Monday morning.