The Buzz on Business for March 5th 2024

After spending the day seemingly unable to make up their minds, stocks sold off in the last half hour or so of the session and closed mixed with small gains and small losses. Oh, did I mention Bitcoin? It went to the moon.

Stock Market Report

We did have a new all time high today, but not among the major stock market indexes.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off one-quarter of one percent. That’s 98 points, and it closed at 38,990.
• The S&P 500 closed at 5131, off six points or one-tenth of one percent.
• The NASDAQ composite was off four-tenths and closed at 16,208, down 67 points.
• The Russell 2000 bucked the trend. The small caps had a small gain. They were up one-tenth of a percent. That’s two points and close to 2071.

Bond Market Report

Rates were up across the board on Monday.

• The 2-year treasury closed at 4.478%, up eight basis points.
• The yield on the 20-year was up two ticks, and it closed at 4.478%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil gave back almost all of Friday’s gain. It was down a dollar six and closed at $78.69.
• Gold is on a roll. It jumped another $29.00 yesterday and closed—above 2100—at $2,125.
• But the big winner of Monday was Bitcoin. As of 4:00 PM Eastern Time, it stood at $67,441.15. Up $4,584.07. That’s an all-time high for Bitcoin.

Little Earnings or Economic News-YET!

There’s not much news to report on from Monday. The earnings calendar was completely blank as earnings season winds down. However, Target reports later this morning. We will be looking to see what the company has to say about consumer spending.

The economic calendar had just one speech by just one Federal Reserve Board member. There was no news on the speech, so we can conclude nothing earth-shattering was said.

Nothing much on the economic calendar today either. However, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday will be very busy days indeed.

We will be watching all of it very carefully and working hard to figure out what it all means for you, your finances, and your investments. All you have to do is keep it right here on the Buzz.