It was another long week on the Wall Street treadmill, as the market moved a whole bunch, but didn’t really go anywhere! As we close in on the halfway point of 2015, the Dow stands less than 0.5% higher than it did on the 1st of the year!
Monday the market continued to react to the downturn on the bond market. Remember, as bond prices fall, yields go up—so it was troubling to investors to see yields approach 2.4% on the 10-year Treasury. Continued worries over the Greek debt crisis didn’t help matters either. The Dow fell by 82 points, and turned negative for the year!
Tuesday markets struggled to find direction, as continued increases in bond yields were balance by an uptick in oil prices. Discussion continued in the Euro Zone over a potential extension of the Greek bailout. All in all, it was a quiet day on Wall Street as the Dow went down by 2 points.
Wednesday the markets bounced back early, as a rise in oil prices accompanied a drop in the strength of the dollar. (Remember, Wall Street considers an overly strong dollar to be a negative.) The Dow was up 150 points in the first few minutes of trading, bouncing back from several bad days. A tentative settlement to the Greek debt crisis kept the rally going, and the Dow finished up 236 points.
Thursday the rally continued off stronger-than-expected retail sales numbers, but slowed throughout the day when the Greek credit resolution hit yet another road block. The market was able to sustain some momentum, and the Dow finished the day up 38 points.
Friday, however, the rally fell apart from the start of trading. The Greece crisis hurt market sentiment and the Dow was down more than 100 points in the first 15 minutes of trading! Even a positive consumer confidence reading wasn’t enough to help the market, as the Dow dropped 140 points for the day.
