Closing Commentary
U.S. markets reacted positively to the double barreled combination of Bernanke and Bush today with the Dow rallying behind Bernanke’s speech although there was little new contained therein. Bush’s proposals to help out subprime are likely to be significantly less than what’s needed to sort out imperiled homeowners especially given FHA will be charging homeowners market rates for mortgage insurance. That said, EQUITY INDICES rallied, albeit in thin trade. Mid-afternoon to late afternoon equities were very volatile with the market trading near the best levels of the day but falling back a bit on as business wound up for the week. Unsurprisingly, volume was at the lowest level of the week across indices.
Crude Oil rallied in response to the development of a tropical storm east of the Windward Islands but Unleaded sold off better than 1% today. Natural Gas remains under pressure due to massive supply in storage, closing down 3.35% on the day.
Gold looks to have gotten a good ‘flight to hard commodity bid’ ending the day up $7.80 and silver gained 27 cents on the day - likely on the same sentiment. Platinum and Copper rallied as well with the former gaining $11.50, the latter up 5.4 at 340.20.
The USD put in a mixed performance again today ending down slightly against the JPY at 115.80ish after trading to 116.60 during the session. EUR/USD ended flat on the day at 1.36ish and CABLE gained 50 pips to trade in the mid 2.01s.
All eyes will be on the data next week behind Bernanke’s comments re the smaller influence of past quarters and the emphasis the FED will put on coming figures.