Financial Markets: The roller coaster week that was
Posted By RichC on August 12, 2011
The week of August 7 – 12th
I shouldn’t have spent the day in my office watching the markets, but I did and thankfully it was a semi-relief to not see a selloff at the end of the day. For those who’s job it is to manage their client’s money (and handle their phone calls), they will head home to lick their wounds and question their line of work; for those who manage their own savings, it will be to shut down the computer, make excuses and find something mundane to do in order to take their mind off of this stressful week (I’m going to mow the lawn!)
For most long term investors who are saving for college or retirement the week was another reminder that trying to grow (or preserve) savings is not for the faint of heart. It isn’t easy and very few were are able to sell at a top and rebuy at a bottom or have picked the right mix in order to feel successful – as financial experts would suggest …“don’t even try.”
NEW YORK—U.S. stocks remained solidly in positive territory as an upbeat retail sales report trumped a weak reading on consumer confidence, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its first back-to-back gain in more than a month.
As one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street history ended, the blue-chip index closed up 125.71 points, or 1.1%, to 11269.02, led by Boeing, which rose 4.4%. Hewlett-Packard gained 3.6% and Caterpillar rose 3.5%.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index in late afternoon gained 8 points, or 0.7%, to 1181, led by industrial and consumer discretionary stocks. The index hasn’t had two consecutive sessions of gains since July 22.
The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite rose 15.30 points, or 0.6%, to 2507.98.
Comments