Daily Market Commentary

Stocks opened higher Thursday but the rest of the day played out like Tale of two Cities. The Dow gained a solid 68-points, mainly because the price of oil rallied, but the Nasdaq got hit hard again. I read that it was the first time that the Dow was positive and the Nasdaq had dropped 1% or more for two days in a row since December 2000. Meanwhile the Transports were up solidly again.

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Stocks opened sharply higher on Wednesday after the OPEC announcement that Saudi Arabia will cut back on their oil production and that sent the price of oil and energy stocks higher. The Dow benefited most and was up over 100-pooints early on, but the gains faded throughout the day and the Dow closed with a small gain of just 2-points. The results were mixed as the Nasdaq 100 took a bad hit losing over 1%, while the Transports had a solid day gaining 0.43%, and S&P and small caps ...

Stocks opened lower on Tuesday but caught a bid early, and despite a late fade, held onto to modest gains. The Dow added 24-points while the Nasdaq led, but the Nasdaq gave back about 2/3 of its midday gains by the close.

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On queue, stocks pulled back modestly after the pre-Thanksgiving weekend rally. A little profit taking is typical this time of year after what felt like an exaggerated post-election rally, which followed the exaggerated pre-election sell-off. The Dow ended the day down 54-points while we saw slightly larger declines percentage-wise in the broader indices.

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I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend. I sure did, but after 10 days on the road in four different hotel rooms and a laptop, I am sure glad to be back home with my normal setup. Let's get to it.

It has been quite a run for the stock market since the election and the rally ran right through the strong seasonal period of Thanksgiving week. The Dow picked up another 67-points with much of that coming just before the early close on ...