The Buzz on Business for May 20th, 2024

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 40,000 for the first time ever on Friday. Quite a milestone and quite a tribute to American business and finance. We confess to having eagerly stared into the abyss of the Giant Quote Machine most of the day to see if the number would be reached, if it would hold, or if selling would come in at the close, as often happens, especially on a Friday.

We also couldn’t help but think back to the day that the Dow closed above 10,000 for the first time.

It was March 29^th, 1999, a quarter of a century ago. Just like Friday, we ignored our other work and eagerly watched the TV in the minutes leading up to 4:00 PM ET and eagerly awaited the close and the commentary that would follow, especially if 10,000 had held.

The difference then was that we had two small boys who, like clockwork, every day, would take over the television at that hour to watch one of their favorite shows. We seem to recall it was Rugrats but might have been Blue’s Clues. Who remembers? It was a long time ago.

To her credit, their mother, our ex-wife, hustled the boys out of the TV room and got them busy with something else, while we stared into the abyss of Joe Kernan, Maria Bartiromo, and CNBC.

After a minute or two, the oldest of the boys furtively sneaked back into the TV room and whispered, “Can I watch it with you, Daddy?”

So, we watched as the Dow did indeed close above 10,000 for the first time with our four-year-old son on our lap.

Obviously, he is no longer four years old. He’s a grown man, a big-shot corporate lawyer, with a big-shot law firm with a bunch of giant, well-known, big-shot, corporate clients.

He has an amazing, beautiful wife and an adorable baby daughter with another baby girl on the way. We could easily devote a year’s worth of Buzz on Business episodes on why we are so very proud of him and why we are so very lucky to call him our son.

But today, as compelling a story as the Dow Jones Industrial Average's closing above 40,000 for the first time is, we can’t help but wish it was March 29^th, 1999.

Stock Market Report

The Dow finally closed above 40,000 but the party was spoiled by the techs and the small caps as stocks finished mixed on good volume.

• As we said, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 40,000 for the first time ever. It was up 134 points, that's three-tenths of 1% and it closed at 40,004.
• The S&P 500 was up one-tenth of 1%. That's six points on the S&P, and it closed at 5303.
• The NASDAQ Composite was off slightly. It closed at 16,686, down 12 points, or one-tenth of 1%.
• The small caps were also down slightly—basically flat. The Russell 2000 ended and starts the week at 2,096.

Bond Market Report

Bonds were down. Rates were up pretty much across the board on Friday.              

• The yield on the 2-year treasury was up four basis points and closed at 4.827%.
• The 20-year was likewise up 4 ticks and it closed at 4.664%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil continued in the trading range it's been in throughout the month. It was up $0.64. And a barrel now changes hands at $79.46.
• Gold closes in on a new all-time high. It was up $37.80. And a troy ounce will now set you back $2,420.80.
• And Bitcoin had a pretty good day. It was up $1,894.64 and at 4:00 PM Eastern Time Friday stood at $67,024.20.

Slow News Week on Tap

Nothing on either the earnings or economic calendar on Friday. Nothing on the economic calendar today and very little at all on the earnings calendar this week as first quarter earnings season continues to wind down. We do get NVIDIA on Wednesday after the close the street is expecting earnings of $5.58 a share on $24.53 billion in sales. We will be watching it carefully as we do every quarter. Any news out of NVIDIA could very well move the market.

Perhaps the bigger story will be how the market reacts to the relatively paltry news, we expect this week—especially as the inflation sweepstakes continues to heat up. There are many speeches on the docket from Federal Reserve board members this week. Maybe, just maybe, one of them will have something interesting to say. Maybe.

Economic news, earnings news or no! We will do what we do and analyze and report all of it to you every day here on the Buzz.