The Buzz on Business for March 14th 2024

A strange day on Wall Street. Stocks traded in a narrow range. Volume was decent. Advancers led decliners. And  by mid-afternoon, we had mostly green numbers on the giant quote machine. But it was not to be. Markets faded into the close to finish mixed

Stock Market Report

• • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 39,043. That’s up 38 points, or one-tenth of a percent.

• • The S&P 500 was off two-tenths. It closed at 5,165 down 10 points.

• • As is often the case, the NASDAQ Composite got the worst of it. It was down. A bit over one-half of one percent, eight-eight points, and closed at 16,178.

• • Once again, the small caps outperformed. The Russell 2000 was up a half-percent? That’s ten points, and it closed at 2,074.

Bond Market Report

Bonds were also mixed, but yields on the durations we follow weere up on the day.

• • The yield on the 2-year Treasury closed at 4.639%. Up five basis points

• • The 20-year was up three ticks and it closed at 4.445%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• • Oil Had a pretty good day. It was up $1.56 and closed at $79.54.

• • Gold got back almost everything it lost yesterday. It was up $14.70 and closed at $2,180.80.

• • Bitcoin also had a good day. It was up $2063.28 and at 4:00 PM Eastern Time stood at $73,421.73.

This morning, probably as you listen to this, we are headed to Cabo San Lucas for the weekend. We’re meeting two of our sons, a daughter-in-law and a year and a half old granddaughter, for some fun in the sun.

We’ll have our laptop along with us and won’t miss an episode.

Lack of News Leads to Lethargic Markets.

Not much news yesterday, which probably explains the lethargic markets. Earnings season has wound down. A couple of companies that reported none will move the markets one way or the other.

Nothing at all on the economic calendar yesterday but today’s might get the markets moving.

It’s Thursday, so we get initial and continuing jobless claims.

We also are expecting the retail sales complex for February. The street is expecting eight-tenths of a percent increase over January.

But more interestingly is the Producer Price index numbers roll out at 8:30 Eastern Time this morning.

Inflation has been creeping up in the last few months. Today we, in spite of our travel, we will be going through all the numbers and will have it all for you tomorrow, right here on the Buzz.