Markets were slightly bifurcated on Wednesday a day after the Republicans took control of the Senate, which traditionally is seen as the more business friendly party. Regardless of your party affiliation markets have performed very well in recent years obviously. The benchmarks seem not to be taking much notice in anything these days to discourage its confident mood. We can have a liberal Democrat agenda or a conservative Republican one. QE was very kind to the indexes, and the end of that era is ushering in and that seems to be fine too. Bottom line is they are interpreting any news as good. Is their to much complacency in the markets? Are investors confusing “brains with a bull market?” Remember indexes do not really care what anyone thinks and it seems somewhat safe to say that as long as the S&P 500 remains north of 2000 and the Nasdaq of 4600, market participants can remain long. Wednesday the S&P 500 closed higher by .6% and the Nasdaq fell fractionally by .1%. Energy seemed to benefit from the political news overnight as it and the utilities group were among the bright spots. Both DVN and EOG reported earnings earlier and were both very well received. I guess one could say in hindsight a long position going into the numbers was warranted as the group was massacred recently, but with DVN up 10% and EOG by 6% I tip my hat to two companies that are securing our energy independence.

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