Bank Stocks Boost Market; Vanguard's John Bogle Dead At 89

On the backs of earnings from Bank of American (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS), stocks took another step forward as January 2019 is beginning to look a lot like January 2018.

The Dow has already added 880 points in the new year, the NASDAQ, 400, the S&P 500, 110. Of the 11 trading sessions so far in 2019, the major indices have finished in positive territory in eight of them.

On the day, point gains were minimized in late selling, suggesting that the bank earnings were not out of the ordinary nor any indication that the economy was picking up speed, only that money needs to be parked somewhere, there's plenty of it sloshing around and BAC and GS had been beaten down recently.

In some sad news, John C. Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group and the inventor of the index fund, has died at age 89. Bogle was one of the great financial minds of our time and a very decent human being. His wisdom and wit will be missed.

Dow Jones Industrial Average January Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
1/2/19	23,346.24	+18.78	+18.78
1/3/19	22,686.22	-660.02	-641.24
1/4/19	23,433.16	+746.94	+105.70
1/7/19	23,531.35	+98.19	+203.89
1/8/19	23,787.45	+256.10	+459.99
1/9/19	23,879.12	+91.67	+551.66
1/10/19	24,001.92	+122.80	+674.46
1/11/19	23,995.95	-5.97	+669.49
1/14/19	23,909.84	-86.11	+583.38
1/15/19	24,065.59	+155.75	+739.13
1/16/19	24,207.16	+141.57	+880.70

At the Close, Wednesday, January 16, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,207.16, +141.57 (+0.59%)
NASDAQ: 7,034.69, +10.86 (+0.15%)
S&P 500: 2,616.10, +5.80 (+0.22%)
NYSE Composite: 11,907.61, +38.93 (+0.33%)

Joke of the Day: NY junior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announces Presidential bid. This woman barely qualifies as a Senator, elected to the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, she was only viable as a shoe-in in one of the most liberal states in the country. Her list of accomplishments includes the shaming of Al Franken.

Gillibrand, in addition to praising voters last year that she would not run for president and would serve out her full term in the senate if re-elected (probably true, that), has often changed her views. When she was a member the House of Representatives in 2008, she received an "A" rating from the NRA for her positions on gun control. In 2018, the NRA gave her an "F."