The market opened sharply lower this morning as crude prices soared while protests in Libya have caused some nervousness on Wall Street. The rising political turmoil in the Middle East has pushed oil to $94.48 per barrel, up $4.77, today while a weaker-than-expected S&P Case-Shiller number put the bulls behind the 8-ball early. The home-price index fell 4.1% from the prior year as prices in 18 of 20 cities were down but this didn’t stop the bulls. They immediately stepped in after the bell and lifted the market off its lows as they held support.
The bulls also got some help after the Richmond Fed manufacturing survey came in better-than-expected. Wall Street got a print of 25 versus expectations for 18. Meanwhile, Consumer Confidence came in at 70.4 versus forecasts for 65.5. This helped the bulls stabilize the chaos but trading continues to be choppy and volatile.
The Dow opened with a triple-digit loss and fell to 12,270 (- 120 points) before rebounding to off its lows to cut looses in half. However, the index is currently down 107 points to 12,283. We said to look for 12,200 to hold so if we retreat into the closing bell this will be the first level the bulls look to protect.
The S&P 500 is lower by 18 points at 1,325 and has traded down to 1,323 which is where to said the first level of support should come in at. There is
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This has been a turbulent week on the geopolitical front, triggering waves in the stock market and sending the price of crude oil through the roof. While the stock market corrects itself (as we anticipated), the price of crude oil seems to be creeping ever higher, putting upward pressure on the price of fuel and energy. Worse still is the serious effect this could have on the economic recovery that everyone has been banking on.