In addition to the ongoing controversy over the President’s remarks relative to the events in Charlottesville over the past several days, there were desertions of several prominent business leaders and C.E.O’s who have left the various advisory councils to the White House. These developments could put the administration’s pro-business legislative agenda in trouble. Last night it was announced that there would be no infrastructure advisory council as promised. The news caused a lower start to the various stock index futures in the evening session. In addition, the terrorist attacks in Barcelona added to the general skittishness of the foreign and domestic markets.
The indices recovered for awhile today and spent some time in the green…but negativity prevailed. The DOW finished today with a loss of 76 points, the S&P 500 dropped 4, and the NASDAQ declined by 5 by the closing bell.
Economic reports today: The preliminary August University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey showed a nice gain up to 97.6 from the end of July when it was at 94.5. This is the highest level since January.
Earnings finished the week today with AMAT, EL and ROST higher on their reports while DE and HIBB were lower. FL sold off sharply.
Donald M. Selkin
Don Selkin is the Chief Market Strategist at Newbridge Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC and provides the Fair Value analysis for CNBC each morning. The commentary provided in this Market Letter is intended to provide timely market analysis and should not be considered a research report. This Market Letter may contain, and is limited to: Discussions of broad based indices; Commentaries on economic, political or market conditions; Technical analyses concerning the demand and supply for a sector, index or industry based in trading volume and price; Statistical summaries of multiple companies’ financial data, including listings of current ratings; and, Recommendations regarding increasing or decreasing holdings in particular industries or securities. This Market Letter does not make a financial or investment recommendation or otherwise promotes a product or service of the firm. This Market Letter contains only news, facts, and commentary on information previously reported from a news source believed to be accurate and reliable by the author. These news sources include the following: Bloomberg Financial, Reuters and the Associated Press. The Daily Market Notes have been abbreviated and updated with permission from the author.