The Buzz on Business for April 16th, 2024

Many commentators are explaining away the recent downdraft in stocks by pointing to geopolitical events in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Clearly these events are on the minds of traders and investors. They’re on everyone’s mind.

However, we are skeptical that these conflicts around the world are what has set off the present round of selling. Russia and Iran are in the middle of these conflicts and Russia and Iran are two of the largest oil producers on the planet. Yet the price of a barrel has barely budged over the last two weeks.

If they were the spark, traders would sell their stocks and buy oil.

We’re inclined to the idea that Wall Street is still adjusting to a world without interest rate cuts, and, well, we’ve come an awfully long way in the last six months without hardly stopping to catch our breath.

Stock Market Report

Another tough day for traders as stocks, bonds, and even Bitcoin all sold off on good volume.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 37,735. That’s off 248 points or seven-tenths of 1%.
• The S&P 500 was off 62 points. That’s 1.2%, and it closed at 5,062.
• The NASDAQ Composite was down 1.8 percent, 290 points, and it closed at 15,885.
• The Russell 2000 was off 1.4%, 27 points, and it closed back below 2000 at 1,976.

Bond Market Report

• The yield on the 2-year Treasury flirted briefly with the 5% level before falling back to finish moderately higher. It closed at 4.925%, up two basis points.
• The 20-year was up nine ticks and closed at 4.840%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil had a small gain. It was up a minuscule $0.20, and a barrel will now set you back at $85.60.
• Gold had another good day. It was up $43 even and closed above 2400 for the first time at $2,403.10.
• Bitcoin had a rough day. It closed at $63,408.42. That’s down $3,631.05 from Friday’s close.

Good Earnings and Economic News

As we said, it was a very tough day for stocks and bonds, but not all the news was bad. Three public companies reported earnings before the opening bell. And all met or exceeded expectations for both the top and bottom lines.

Goldman Sachs, the big Wall Street bank, had a blowout quarter. The outlook was for earnings of $8.74 a share. Instead, it earned $11.58 a share, far exceeding expectations.

We also got retail sales before the bell on Monday and they also blew away expectations.

Retail sales in March grew by 1.1% versus expectations of 0.5% and 0.6% last month. The entire retail sales complex was up, showing strength from the consumer.

We did get a bit of bad news from the manufacturing sector. The New York State manufacturing index came in well below expectations. It tends to be volatile, and manufacturing has been trending positively in recent months. Hopefully, this was an outlier, but it bears watching.

Housing Data, Industrial Production Due Out Today

Today, the housing complex rolls out. We get industrial production for March. The Atlanta Fed GDP Now is released, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at 1:15 Eastern Time.

Everyone here at the Ministry of Truth is on mandatory double shifts until further notice so we can have all of it for you tomorrow, here on The Buzz.