The Buzz on Business for Wednesday, January st,

Most days, the various indexes move, more or less in lockstep. One is up; they’re all up. One is down; they’re all down. When that’s not the case, we’ll say “stocks were mixed” or “bonds were mixed,” but even then, the various markets generally move together. Seldom do we see the indexes we follow move in opposite directions, disconnected one from each other. But that is what we saw on Tuesday.

Stock Market Report

Stocks were, umm, mixed on the day yesterday.

• The Dow Jones Industrials had a pretty good day. They were up 134 points. That's almost four-tenths of a percent and closed at 38,467.
• The S&P 500 was flat. It was down 3 points and closed at 4,925.
• The NASDAQ Composite, on the other hand, got beat up pretty good. It was down eight-tenths of a percent, that's 118 points, and it closed at 15,510.
• The Russell 2000 was also down four-tenths of a percent and closed at 2,002.
• The RSP was up a minuscule twenty-one-hundredths of a percent, and the SOXL was down almost 4 1/2 percent on the session.

Bond Market Report

Bonds were also mixed.

• The yield on the 2-year treasury closed at 4.339%. That's up two basis points.
• The 20-year closed at 4.371%. That's off five ticks.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

Spoiling our theme, Oil, gold, and Bitcoin were all up on the session.

• Oil managed a gain of 83 cents, and a barrel now changes hands at $77.74.
• Gold was up $29.50 and closed at $2,054.80.
• Bitcoin was up almost six-tenths of a percent. It closed at 43,584, up $252 on the day.

Tech Earnings Jitters Drive Divergence

Not much in the way of news to explain the mixed markets. There seemed to be some nervousness among traders regarding all of the tech earnings that were due out after the bell and during the rest of the week.

Turns out we got lots and lots of green numbers on the giant quote machine today. Microsoft. Google. AMD, Pfizer, United Parcel Service, and General Motors all beat expectations. In fact, of the 31 companies reporting during the day on Tuesday, only Starbucks and game maker Electronic Arts missed. Starbucks was a very small miss. That’s probably because I’ve been doing my part by visiting my local store. Electronic Arts didn't do all that well. Expectations were for profits of $2.94 a share. They came in at $1.07. Let's see what happens to the stock tomorrow.

Feds Get a Job Market Headache

The JOLTS job openings report came in better than expected. The labor market continues to be strong. Economists were expecting 8.75 million job openings. Instead, we got over 9 million. Consumer confidence, on the other hand, came in lower than expectations, but not by much. The forecast was for an index reading of 115, and it came in at 114.84 in January.

Earnings Quiet Before the Fed Storm

Not much news on the earnings front today. A lot of companies are reporting, but none are likely to move the markets. We get some more employment data before the bell. But the big news is the statement of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee and the Fed's interest rate decision. Both of which will be announced at 2:00 pm this afternoon. Everyone here at the Ministry of Truth will be pawing through all of the tea leaves so that we can report it all to you tomorrow right here on the Buzz.