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Daily Market Update – October 26, 2016 (Close) Yesterday wasn’t a great day for the market, but it wasn’t really bad either. Today, the morning’s futures appeared to want to be a clone of yesterday, which was a day characterized by no great earnings news and no great guidance. The morning’s news yesterday got off to a decent start with some optimistic guidance from DuPont, but there was absolutely no follow through. After the market’s close, Apple showed that its primary money maker was slowing down, but its share price was pretty resilient, despite the lack of any really good news. Today ended up being another day without direction, nor with any leadership. At it’s best, you could say that the day was mixed, but at least didn’t follow along with oil, which was again weaker on the day. We still have so many earnings reports to come in the next 2 weeks that there’s still time for a happy picture to be painted ahead of December’s FOMC meeting, but the early round hasn’t been very impressive. Still, that could change where it really counts in about 2 weeks as retailers begin their reports. Those retailers are, by and large, at pretty low prices and they could use a boost. But. the real importance attached to their earnings will be the guidance they provide, especially if they can finally see the silver lining ahead. I’m not as sanguine about that as I was a week ago, though. Friday’s GDP will tell us something, but its really up to the retailers to let us know not only what has happened in the last quarter, but what they see ahead. That may go a long way toward creating confidence that whatever the FOMC may do will be the correct path to take. Last year, it wasn’t and I’m certain no one wants to repeat that, nor the ensuing sell off to start 2016. Earnings reported after the trading session’s close were, by and large, better and could conceivably have some follow through for tomorrow, but there really weren’t any big names reporting earnings. This week is now nearly at its end and with little to distinguish it. Old timers will tell you that is exactly when the unexpected happens: When you don’t expect it. . |
