Geopolitical issues with Russian and Georgia coupled with an early pop in oil contributed to a weak open on Monday. Stocks recovered by the end of the trading day to close moderately higher. On Tuesday, the commerce department report on the trade deficit was favorable but was negated by a large 102 Billion federal budget deficit as stocks tumbled to triple digit losses. Midweek, the retail sector disappointed pushing the Dow to its second triple digit loss in two days. Thursday saw jobless claims up and both the CPI and Core CPI worse than expected. However, that wasn’t enough to keep the market down three days running as oil dropped to fuel an 82 point gain in the Dow. We closed out the week with a low volume day that saw the major indexes moderately higher. Oil finished at $113.77 a barrel. For the week, the Dow lost 74 points, the SPX gained a paltry 2 points and the NDX was the big winner with a 31 point gain.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites