Stocks Retreat After No Deal Is Reached

I’m back in the office after a long stretch of travel. The stock market is giving back some of the big gains it took on Thursday and Friday. The S&P 500 jumped back over 1,700 on Friday, and now we’re back down to 1,692.73, which is a drop of about 0.6%. That’s not much, but we’ve been noticeably more volatile than usual.

The latest news is that the politicians are having difficulty trying to end this absurd stalemate. Clearly, the market wants this to end soon.

On Friday, both of our big banks, Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), reported earnings. Wells earned 99 cents per share which was two cents ahead of expectations. Shares of WFC dropped sharply early on during Friday’s trading, but regained their composure and closed the day down by just one penny per share.

On the other hand, JPMorgan reported a loss for the quarter thanks to a fortune going towards legal costs. Excluding that, the bank earned $1.42 per share which was 24 cents more than expectations. I actually thought it could be even higher. Remarkably, JPM also closed lower on Friday by one penny per share.

Many of our Buy List stocks continue to do very well. On Friday, AFLAC (AFL) got to a new 52-week high. Cognizant Technology (CTSH) nearly broke $89 per share. In late June, it was near $60 per share. CTSH was helped on Friday when Infosys beat expectations.

Posted by on October 14th, 2013 at 9:54 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.