Employment, Consumer Sentiment, And Wholesale Trade Today
Solid day in the markets yesterday with all of the major indexes in the green. Was also nice to see the Russell 2000 Small-Cap Index leading the way.
The market, all week long, was bracing for today's deadline to pass a spending bill to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. While they didn't pass a year-long bill yesterday, they did at least come to an agreement for a 2-week extension. Not the best outcome. But far from the worst, as it looks like a government shutdown will be avoided. The House passed it. Then the Senate. Now it's off to the President, where he's expected to sign. So that potential near-term crisis has been temporarily resolved.
The next potential market moving event comes this morning with the Employment Situation report. This is the last employment report of the year, and traders will be looking to see how many jobs were created last month. The headline number is expected to show 190,000 new jobs being created, with 184,000 coming from the private sector. This is likely to influence trading today and for the rest of the year. A favorable report should add to the expected Christmas rally, while a disappointing report could cause a drag.
But as I've mentioned before, the market typically goes up in the month of December and I'm expecting more of the same again this year.
Tax cut reconciliation, of course, still needs to pass this year too (and by Christmas). The market is still optimistic that it's on track. And so am I. But would like to get this done sooner rather than later. But so far, so good.
In other news, yesterday's Weekly Jobless Claims fell by 2,000 to 236,000, beating last month's 238K and views for 240K.
And Consumer Credit showed a m/m change of $20.5 billion, up from last month's $19.2 billion and the consensus for $17.3 billion. A rise is revolving credit typically correlates with the confidence of the consumer.
Fingers crossed for a solid Employment report. We'll also get Consumer Sentiment and Wholesale Trade as well.
Could be a trifecta of good news. And a great way to end the week.
Best,
Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research
|
