Yesterday, I attended a triple-A baseball game in Salt Lake city. The game was tied 3 to 3 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Number 14 for the hometown Bees stood at the plate with the bases loaded.
The new pitcher for the Tacoma Raniers had just finished warming up and he looked mighty impressive. He was throwing in the low nineties (mph). You could hear the smack of the ball as it hit the catcher’s glove. I turned to my friend who was rooting for the Tacoma team and said knowingly, “This guy is bringing it. He is throwing some heat. It looks like it might be extra innings.”
Number 14 on the Bees stepped into the box, swiping at the chalk line near the plate with his foot. The pitcher stared hard at his catcher, nodded his head up and down, wound up, settled his front foot in a stretch from the mound, pulled the ball and his glove up to his chest, took a quick look around at the runners on base, looked back at number 24 tensed up and ready at the plate, wound up again, and then he fired a searing fastball right down the middle of the plate.
Number 14 swung hard and the crack of the bat hitting the ball exploded into the night. The ball flew off the bat, rising higher and higher into the lights. The crowd erupted with cheers as the disappearing white ball landed in the green grass on the other side of the fence. A grand slam finished off the game, a win for the hometown team.
The exciting bottom-of-the-ninth, grand slam finish, coupled with an amazing fireworks show after the game, finished off an enjoyable July 4th for me and my friends, no doubt, but it also taught me, once again, that no matter what the game looks like in a moment, no matter what you think you know, anything can happen. As always, any player has the capability to affect the outcome on any given day.
The market these days is teaching me the same lesson, again. No matter what the analysts think, no matter what the market looks like on any day, or in any week or month, any news has the capability to affect the outcome on any given day.
Take today, for example. The market opened liking the news.
- U.S. employers added a robust 195,000 jobs in June and many more in April and May than previously thought. The job growth raises hopes for a stronger economy in the second half of 2013.
This is how it should be, right? More folks working means a stronger economy and that raises the prospects of higher corporate profits because more folks have more money to spend on all kinds of things.
- Pay also rose sharply in June, the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report Friday showed. Pay has now outpaced inflation over the past year.
As well, the market in Europe suggested investors are getting happier as the indices there exploded over night.
- The FTSE 100 soared +3.08% yesterday. Italy’s FTSE MIB was up even more at +3.44%. Spain’s stock market spiked up +3.07%. France was higher by +2.89%. And Germany, was up +2.10%
As I write, the market has reversed and moved into the red, and as I look again, it is now back in the green. It reminds me of the colorful and wild fireworks last night at the wild triple-A baseball game.
Yup, anything can happen on any given day. No matter, though, with the market, it might finish down today because of the irrational fear of QE ending, but, like number 14 on the Bees, it will cue up for a fastball coming right down the middle of the plate as the economic numbers keep getting better and better throughout the summer and fall.
Trade in the day; Invest in your life …
