Stocks Fall, Election Results Stall

Wall Street celebrated the Veteran's Day observed Monday by reeling and ending down sharply for stocks, while bonds stayed pat, and oil slid below $60 a barrel. Gold fell back towards the $1,200 level. Mid-day Tuesday, the averages are mixed to down a bit (100 points lower on the Dow).

Monday, stocks fell between 1.9% and 3% for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite - rough sledding indeed on the day when banks and Federal offices were closed in observance of Veteran's Day, November 11th.

At the end of the day (I never did like that phrase), but it's appropriate here, sellers had the upper hand over the buyers. The fall today takes us back to near even-Steven for the past week; when stocks rallied sharply from the late October lows. Year-to-date, were up 2-3% in the popular averages. Many stocks now are NOT up this year, and have some real catching up to do.

What did work Monday were the defensive sectors: Utilities, Real Estate, Consumer Staples and Communication Services. The latter 2 were down less than 0.8%, while the first two saw small gains.

The contested election results in a few states - and the ensuing news over the weekend - probably did add to the uncertainty in Monday's trading. Tuesday marks one week since the election voting took place, and ballot recounts and court orders will take some time to sort this all out.

I'm not taking sides here, but having been a voter in Broward County, Florida for most of my adult life (since 1976), many of the elected officials are bad actors time and time again. 

Perhaps other Counties just don't get the attention of the larger Miami-Date, Palm Beach and Broward areas. Look up how many Broward School Board members have been sentenced to jail time for influence peddling, graft, corruption and the like. It'll make your head spin. Just follow the money, or this week the missing boxes of ballots - and you'll find someone with their hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.

My recommendation is to watch your pot of money, and allocate it away from an aggressive stance until conditions improve. You can then sleep better and have some liquidity for the next opportunity.

Will Rogers stated it this way. "I'm more concerned about the return of my money, vs. the return on my money". 

Thanks for reading.

~Barry