These days, there are two ways investors can go to determine whether to be bullish or bearish about the market and economic recovery.
Investors can look at positive earnings reports throughout the month of July mixed with the month’s more than 7% growth for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (rising from its 9,774.02 close on June 30th 2010 to 10,465.94 on July 30 2010) as forceful indicators of recovery and hope.
Or, investors can pull from the mixed economic data released throughout July and today, including manufacturing reports showing slowed growth in July, falling consumer confidence and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s statement in July about slowed economic growth and his statements today that Fed monetary policy is still needed to spur recovery.
Either way it seems as if the markets are in a tug-of-war between opposing thought camps and instead of setting a consistent up or down trend that can really clue us in to whether or not economic recovery is on the menu, the movement of the market remains similar to that of a rollercoaster.
Today, the bulls won as the Dow rose by 208.44 points to 10,674.38. The Nasdaq rose 40.66 points to 2,295.36 and the S&P 500 rose 24.26 points to 1,125.86. European and Asian markets were also up.
