Monday's Market Recap - The Santa Claus Rally Occurred But It Wasn't Enough.
What is The Premarket Telling Us?
7:00 AM.
US stock futures are all indicating higher early in the premarket. Dow futures are up 217 points, Nasdaq futures up 63 points, and S&P futures up 22 points. It appears that the Santa Claus is poised to continue. The Federal government shutdown continues, Brexit will happen in March, and investors remain uncertain about the Fed, and rate hikes.
On The Bond Desk:
The US 10 Year Bond Yield 2.74%, unchanged from the prior close.
Currency Desk:
Euro dollar: 1.14
UK Pound: 1.27
Crude Oil:
WTI crude oil futures at $46.20/barrel, up 1.92%.
On the Earnings Calendar:
None
In M&A News:
None.
What About The Asian And European Markets?
Major Asian markets closed mixed on Monday. Japan (Nikkei 225) fell 0.31%, Shanghai gained 0.44%, Hong Kong (Hang Seng) up 1.34%.
Major European markets were also mixed. German (DAX) rose 1.71%, France CAC 40 up 1.11%, London FTSE 100 slipped 0.09%.
Market And Sector Dynamics
Stocks opened the trading day solidly positive, with the Dow up 195 points, Nasdaq up 57 points, and the S&P up 18 points. A tweet form the President over the weekend, suggesting that he spoke with China's President Xi, and negotiations are going well, may be adding a degree of comfort for investors, although most are now skeptical of such tweets. Amazon, has announced plans to expand Whole Food, as a means of expanding its Amazon Prime program, both of this has added some positive sentiment to markets.
Crude oil is trading lower, early in the session, with WTI at $45.73/barrel, up 0.88% helping shares of energy related companies.
The early rally, was fairly broad, with Advancing shares outpacing Declining shares by 4:1. Consumer Discretionary, and financials are the current leaders.
Stocks lost some steam around the midday period, but regained momentum in the afternoon session, and ticked higher into the close.
Today's rally was broad-based, with all eleven S&P sectors closing with gains, led by Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Financials, Technology, Basic Materials, Energy, and Consumer Staples.
Factors Influencing Today's Market
The partial government shutdown continues in Washington, with no end in sight. The new Democratic leadership takes over in the House of Representative after the New Years day holiday.
Crude oil traded modestly higher today. WTI crude oil closed at $45.41/barrel, up 0.18%.
There is growing consensus that, Pension Funds rebalancing has helped to fuel the late Santa Claus rally.
Investors are cautiously hoping, that the Fed will not hike rates in 2019.
Market Close Volume Traded And Advance Decline Ratio
At the end of the last day of trading for 2018, the major indices were higher. The Dow gained 265.06 points, Nasdaq rose 55.79 points, and the S&P rose 21.11 points. Total NYSE volume traded, a modest 3.40 billion shares. Advancing shares outpaced Declining shares almost 3:1.
Data Sources: Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN Money, Google Finance, Market Watch, TD Ameritrade, Yahoo Finance.
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