While the Republicans made big gains in the election this past week, stocks managed little net change. Fear did continue to dissipate. Despite that, stocks managed to push the envelope ever so slightly higher to log record closing highs in major indices the last three days of the week.
Monday, stocks in Asia fell 1% giving back about two-thirds of Friday’s gains while in Europe they gave back half — falling 0.9%. In the U.S., stocks fell 0.3% on low volume. While precious metals fell another 1%, their miners recovered with a nice 4% gain for the day. Tuesday, stocks rose in Asia 0.9% recovering most of Monday’s loss. Stocks moved the other way in Europe and the U.S. closing down 1.0% and 0.5% on low moderate volume. Precious metals miners lost the gains from Monday closing down 4%.
Wednesday, stocks in Asia continued their seesaw pattern by falling the amount gained the day before. At the close, they were down 0.9% on low volume. In Europe, they charged upward 1.7% and in the U.S. they rose a more modest 0.6% on low volume — again setting record closing values for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index. This euphoria sent precious metals and their miners crashing 3.5% and juniors about twice that amount. Thursday, stocks fell in Asia 0.4%, but were up slightly in Europe and the U.S. on low volume. That was enough to log two more record highs in the major indices.
Friday, stocks fell slightly in Asia and 0.5% in Europe but rose slightly in the U.S. on low volume. Miniscule closing gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Average moved them to new record highs. Precious metals prices jumped smartly, powering their miners up 8% and junior miners 11% while the VXO shed another 5% to close the week at 12.43.