Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Wall Street closes out the most boring week in history
Wall Street has had perhaps the most boring week this week, as every day has yielded nothing but flat and mixed markets. Today the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) was the largest mover with a .57% drop, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) lost .14%, the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained .03%, and the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) added.31%.
Even with the “Quadruple Witching Hour” today, in which stock market index futures, stock market index options, stock options and single stock futures expired, the higher volume and expected volatility did not make much of a difference in today’s equity markets.
Unemployment numbers rose slightly in New York to 9.1% and in New Jersey to 9.9%, which perhaps explains the slight down tick in today’s S&P 500 closing rates.
European investors gained a new round of confidence from news that the ECB will indeed follow through with its Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) bond buying programs as spelled out by Mario Draghi nearly two weeks ago. In short, an “easing” deal is supposed to be reached by September 27th, in which case markets might erupt again because of more free money! Read more about Europe’s deal here.
Speaking of bailouts, easing, and bond buying, it seems that investors have been waiting for the entire week to see what happens next regarding Dr. Ben’s QE3. Perhaps investors are just waiting, perhaps Dr. Ben is just dragging his feet, or perhaps worst of all, QE3 just won’t work. If Qe3 doesn’t work, what does happen next? Boredom this week might seem like a long lost luxury after the likes of an election, a possible fiscal cliff, and possible debt demise across the world.
Bottom Line: Stay tuned, it is unlikely that the current Wall Street boredom will last forever.
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