Top 3 Reasons Today’s Markets Were Up

Markets closed up on Wall Street: DJI +0.48% SP500 +0.54% Nasdaq +0.28% Gold +0.12%

The markets were up because:

• Wholesale Inventories and Sales were much better than expected. Inventories rose 1.3%, the highest in 2 years, while sales increased 0.6% — twice what Wall Street expected. Do you think the Dow will reach 20,000 in a few years? >
• Basic short covering at the end of a flat week. Given the continued anemic trading volume, traders I spoke with said they are getting flat because they don’t know what to expect next week. As more prop shops close or downsize, don’t miss 5 Great Job Sites for Business Grads >
• The SEC has made more progress in alleviating fears of another flash crash. The expansion of “circuit breakers” now extends to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and all stocks in the Russell 1000. With or without circuit breakers, Gold is still around all-time highs >