The Buzz on Business for March 25th, 2024

Stocks finished mixed on Friday, but volume was very low, and we couldn’t help but get the feeling that traders took the day off, got out of town, and headed south for spring break.

Stock Market Report

While the techs managed small gains, decliners swamped advancers—twenty-five of the Dow thirty were off on Friday.

• The Dow Jones Industrials were off 305 points. That’s eight-tenths of a percent, and they closed at 39,476.
• The S&P 500 was off a bit over one-tenth of 1%, just seven points. And they closed at 5,234.
• The NASDAQ Composite had a small gain on the day it was up a bit less than two-tenths of a percent, 27 points, and closed at 16,429.
• The Russell 2000 had the worst of it. It was off 1 1/4%, almost 27 points, and closed at 2,072.

Bond Market Report

Rates were down. Bonds were up. Across the board on Friday.

• The yield on the 2-year treasury was off four basis points, and it closed at 4.596%.
• The 20-year was off seven ticks and closed at 4.467%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil was down a minuscule $0.01 and closed at $80.74.
• Gold was off $24.70 and starts the week at $2,160.00.
• Bitcoin had another down day but seems poised to be heading higher to us. It was off $1,389.96. And at 2:00 PM. Eastern Time Friday afternoon stood at $63,925.93.

No News Friday. Big News This Week

Friday may have been the day with the least news we’ve seen since doing this podcast: no economic news, no earnings news, no nothing. And that was reflected in the trading.

Today, we get the rest of the housing complex, building permits and new home sales get reported. But, while they will be interesting, they’re unlikely to move the markets.

The big news this week is, of course, inflation. The PCE complex rolls out at 8:30 Eastern Time on Friday morning. While we will be looking closely at the numbers, it is interesting to us that these data will be announced on a day when the markets are closed. Honestly, we don’t know what to make of that. Both Thursday and Monday bear watching.

A week or so back, we promised listeners an analysis of Q4 earnings, but we have yet to see anyone publish any objective results. We heard a report from the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, on another topic, that mentioned in passing that earnings were quite good for the fourth quarter. However, we don’t have anything specific to report, yet. But, we haven’t forgotten.

Interestingly, first-quarter earnings season starts next week. It never ends! That’s why we love this business.