Tracking Our Lowest Close in Two Months

The stock market is down again today. The S&P 500 isn’t far from the intra-day lows from the Monday before last. The index is on pace for its lowest close in two months.

As I write this, the S&P 500 is at 4,321 which is well below its 50-day moving average of 4,463 but still above its 200-day moving average of 4,134.

September is living up to its reputation as the worst month for stocks. This September will be the S&P 500’s worst since…well, last September.

There were two important economic reports this morning. The first is that Q2 GDP growth was revised upward to 6.7%. I think we all know that Q3 won’t be so good.

The other report is that jobless claims increased to 362,000. I tend to not place a great deal of emphasis on the weekly jobless claims reports because the number tends to bounce around a lot. I do place a lot of emphasis on the trend in jobless claims. That’s also why economists tend to look at the four-week moving average.

Having said that, this was the third weekly increase in a row. This generally lines up with weaker economic data.

Posted by on September 30th, 2021 at 12:56 pm


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