Daily Investment Interpretations

July 9, 2009

2009-7-9:  The markets ended the day about where they began. The NASDAQ Composite rose 5.38 point (0.31%) to 1,752.55, the Dow tacked on 4.76 points (0.06%) to close at 8,183.55, and the S&P 500 shaved 1.47 points (0.35%) to end at 882.66  Oil was unchanged at $60.40 a barrel, while gold dropped $7 to 909. The VIX declined 1.44 to 29.86.
    The chart below shows how the unemployment level, after falling for five consecutive months, suddenly rose again.

    This chart shows how commodity prices, including particularly, oil, fell and then rose again as speculators bet on an imminent recovery. Note that oil prices have fallen a bit to $60 a barrel over the past four weeks.

    This chart shows how U. S. Treasury yields have risen. Appropriate stock market evaluations move inversely to the yields on Treasury bonds, competing with U. S. Treasuries for investors' dollars. Note that 10-year Treasury yields have fallen from almost 4% to about 3.3% over the past four weeks.