Maybe the markets were being a tad bit superstitious this week as this Friday is the 13th, but each day it seemed that investors were on edge. Even the Veterans Day holiday didn’t help. That uneasiness managed to plunge the Dow Jones Industrials negative for the year once again.
All of this stems from a rather bullish jobs report released last Friday, indicating that the Fed may raise interest rates and turn off the cheap supply of money flowing into the market. Meanwhile, the various pieces of economic data released this week, unemployment claims and retail sales, were well, weak.
Pouring gasoline on the week’s fire-sale was dour earnings guidance reports from numerous sector bellwethers, putting a sad cap to the end of earnings season. Add weak data reports from China and you have the recipe for another volatile week.
