7/3/12 2:41 PM – Risk Assets Higher Today

The S&P 500 stock index finished the shortened pre-holiday session with a gain of 0.62%. Bonds were up nicely again. Gold and natural gas were each up about 1.5% today but the real story was oil, up 5% for the day!

All those probably have much to do with an expectation of an interest rate cut in Europe this week and with short-covering as traders who had been betting on those riskier assets to go down packed it in for the week and decided to take some of their risk off the table going into a long weekend that features very heavy newsflow. If you’re short, you remove risk by buying so that pushes up prices.

US markets are open Thursday and Friday but many are taking an extra long weekend. I will be here both days.