Market indexes raced into the close this Tuesday — for the first time in quite a while; lately, we’ve been seeing market activity cancelled out to the lower side of daily trading going into the closing bell. The Dow blue chips gained +561 points, +1.61% on the day, while the S&P 500 performed even better: +1.78%. The Nasdaq enjoyed its best trading day since the earliest days of this month: +360 points or +2.40%. The small-cap Russell 2000 outperformed its peers, +2.95% in the regular session.
Today snaps a three-day losing streak for the major indexes. In this way, it’s a pretty straight bargain rally. We see many of the sectors that have been beaten down in recent days and weeks bounce back strongest today: Energy +2.9% (on a strong +4% jump in Oil), Tech +2.6%, Consumer Discretionary +2.5% and Financials +2.0%. It hasn’t been easy to pinpoint when to time jumping back into good companies trading at sizable discounts, but today triggered plenty of algorithms across a wide horizon, it would appear.
We’ve long been saying the undergirding of recent volatility — related to the Omicron variant and its possible ramifications, the Fed shrinking its asset purchase policy faster, among other things — is a rock-solid economy, with good employment numbers (though totals are a little light of expectations yet) and wage growth matching stronger productivity in various monthly surveys and indexes. We’re light on economic data this afternoon, and are basically in between earnings seasons, so we’re reflecting on data now fully absorbed into the market.
Tomorrow brings us a revision to Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as a new Consumer Confidence Index and Existing Home Sales data. None of these has much potential to impact trading in either direction; what we expect for investors on the Hump Day of Christmas Week is a further following of the trends: either sinking beneath a growing wall of worry or finding opportunities to ride high-quality companies back toward higher valuations.
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Market Indexes Rebound, Erase Monday Losses
Market indexes raced into the close this Tuesday — for the first time in quite a while; lately, we’ve been seeing market activity cancelled out to the lower side of daily trading going into the closing bell. The Dow blue chips gained +561 points, +1.61% on the day, while the S&P 500 performed even better: +1.78%. The Nasdaq enjoyed its best trading day since the earliest days of this month: +360 points or +2.40%. The small-cap Russell 2000 outperformed its peers, +2.95% in the regular session.
Today snaps a three-day losing streak for the major indexes. In this way, it’s a pretty straight bargain rally. We see many of the sectors that have been beaten down in recent days and weeks bounce back strongest today: Energy +2.9% (on a strong +4% jump in Oil), Tech +2.6%, Consumer Discretionary +2.5% and Financials +2.0%. It hasn’t been easy to pinpoint when to time jumping back into good companies trading at sizable discounts, but today triggered plenty of algorithms across a wide horizon, it would appear.
We’ve long been saying the undergirding of recent volatility — related to the Omicron variant and its possible ramifications, the Fed shrinking its asset purchase policy faster, among other things — is a rock-solid economy, with good employment numbers (though totals are a little light of expectations yet) and wage growth matching stronger productivity in various monthly surveys and indexes. We’re light on economic data this afternoon, and are basically in between earnings seasons, so we’re reflecting on data now fully absorbed into the market.
Tomorrow brings us a revision to Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as a new Consumer Confidence Index and Existing Home Sales data. None of these has much potential to impact trading in either direction; what we expect for investors on the Hump Day of Christmas Week is a further following of the trends: either sinking beneath a growing wall of worry or finding opportunities to ride high-quality companies back toward higher valuations.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>