Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Market Reflections 7/6/2009

Last week's disappointing economic data, especially employment and including consumer confidence, finally sank in Monday. That and the holiday thin trading conditions made for a mostly bad day for the bulls especially in the commodity markets. Oil fell $2 to end at $64.50 with grains and silver among other big losers. But gold held mostly firm, ending at $925 and benefiting from wide talk of persistent systemic risk in the financial sector. News that seven more U.S. banks had failed over the weekend didn't help, bringing the year's total to 501 vs. only 25 last year.

But stocks did end slightly higher and just under 900 on the S&P, boosted as were other markets by a solid ISM non-manufacturing report that points solidly at recovery in the third quarter. The dollar index ended 0.1 percent lower at 80.40. Treasury yields were little changed.

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