Stocks Rise on Strong Industrial Production

The stock market is bouncing back today after a rough end to last week. Investors were ignited this morning by a stronger-than-expected report on industrial production. This is one of those reports that track the rise and fall of the economy well.

Industrial production jumped 0.6% last month. Economists were only expecting an increase of 0.1%. Manufacturing output, which is the largest part of industrial production, rose by 0.8%. That’s its biggest gain since August. This is also more evidence that the weather-related sluggishness is probably behind us (though I’m writing this as we got a late season snow here in DC).

fredgraph03172014

The rising tension in Ukraine is, of course, on everyone’s mind. It appears that Crimea is done, and it’s now part of Russia. The worry is that Putin will ratchet up and launch an invasion of Eastern Ukraine. That’s a nightmare scenario. On one hand, that’s an irrational move on his part, but on the other, Colonel Putin doesn’t seem to play by reason. Interestingly, the Polish ETF (EPOL) is very strong today, up 2.7%. Even the Russia ETF ($RSX) is showing some strength, which may hint that the worst is over. RSX had been getting crushed this year.

Our Buy List is also having a good day. CR Bard (BCR) continues to be remarkably strong. The stock got as high as $147.82 today which is another all-time high. Qualcomm is also having a good day for us, but that’s really making up for the weakness it showed on Thursday and Friday. Most of the tech world is waiting for Oracle’s earnings report tomorrow. Or more accurately, they’re waiting for Oracle’s guidance for the current quarter.

Posted by on March 17th, 2014 at 11:15 am


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