Stocks Retrace Lows, End Positive; Gold At Inflection Point

There wasn't much to talk about on the second trading day of 2016, except that stocks managed not to fall for the second consecutive day, thanks to late-day jacking by people who apparently haven't yet gotten the memo that Buying the Dip is so 2012-2015.

Rather than investors seeking bargains, today's late action was more or less a bailout by the NY Fed or the PPT (maybe the same entity) lest people get the idea that the markets are rigged and uncertain.

Surely, economic data and downgrades of the S&P by Citi and the US economy by Duetsche Bank couldn't support the irrational failing that typified the trading on the session.

All three major indices ended the day happily in the green after retracing their lows, giving the CNBC and Bloomberg talking heads a talking point to the effect of "bouncing off yesterday's lows" and being oversold and other such rubbish that is the mainstay of financial (sic) journalism these days.

Markets are likely to gyrate around until Friday, when December non-farm payrolls are announced. In the meantime, the ADP jobs survey kicks off tomorrow prior to the bell, a harbinger of things to come. It might be interesting enough to move markets a little, but probably not by much.

More interesting was the trade in WTI crude. The slippery stuff moved under $36/barrel, finishing at $35.95. Silver ended up some change, closing the NY session at an even $14 per troy ounce. Gold also gained, ending in the US at the statistically signficant 1078.10, which is roughly the delineation between support and resistance. If stocks stumble again this week, watch the PMs take off, as they've been mired in a bear market for more than three years and are viciously oversold.

S&P 500: 2,016.71, +4.05 (0.20%)
Dow: 17,158.66, +9.72 (0.06%)
NASDAQ: 4,891.43, -11.66 (0.24%)