The DOW spent most of the day in positive territory before a late day selloff pushed it downward to close virtually unchanged. The DOW was at 11,842 when the closing bell rang. The big news of the day was the announcement that Saudi Arabia will raise oil production by 500,000 barrels per day. However, this had no effect on crude prices as oil rose to close near an all-time high. To be honest, 500,000 barrels per day sounds like a lot but it's not very much considering the total daily worldwide consumption is about 85,000,000 barrels per day. After the bell UPS announced that second quarter earnings would not meet previous expectations as higher fuel prices and lower shipping volumes are to blame. This is not a big shock, but the market will probably sell off tomorrow morning because of this.
News specific to my portfolio:
My portfolio gained just less than 1/2 of 1% on the day which was ahead of the DOW. Three stocks stood out on the upside. Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Bucyrus International (BUCY) and US Steel (X). There was no news to account for the pop in either CHK or BUCY which were up 6% and 5.25% respectively. X was added to the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs (GS) and traded through the all-important $185 level to close at $191.02. I have mentioned on more than one occasion how important it was for the stock to close above $185. I think the stock can trade through $200 within the next week or two. I took the opportunity early in the day to sell a small portion of my shares at $188.50 on the hope that the stock would fall back closer to $185. However, the stock just kept on chugging all day. Goldman Sachs (GS) and US Bancorp (USB) were the two worst performers in the portfolio today as both were down more than 2.5%. I took the opportunity to buy some USB at $29. I was also hoping to get a chance to add to my Wal-Mart (WMT) position at or below $56. Unfortunately, the stock opened higher and I never got a chance to do that.
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