Stocks rose Wednesday morning after closing slightly below all-time highs a day earlier in one of the final sessions of 2020.
The Dow added more than 100 points, or 0.4%, just after the opening bell. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose about 0.4% as well to close in on their own record levels.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all touched intraday record highs on Tuesday before cutting gains and turning negative. The small-cap Russell 2000 (^RUT) underperformed with a 1.9% drop, unwinding some of its outperformance against its large-cap counterparts for the month-to-date.
Tuesday’s moves lower came after prospects that consumers might receive bigger direct checks to stoke spending appeared to diminish. Though House of Representatives passed a measure to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 to most Americans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scuttled Democratic senators’ efforts to quickly advance the payment increase in the Senate on Tuesday. He also suggested the chamber would only consider the measure in tandem with other provisions unpopular with Democratic lawmakers.
Trading volume among U.S. equities has been relatively light during this holiday-shortened week, and trading on U.S. exchanges will close all day on Friday for New Year’s Day. With Congress’s $900 billion stimulus bill passed and few notable economic releases and no major earnings releases left on the docket for 2020, investors have attempted to look ahead for new market catalysts.
However, with the S&P 500 already tracking toward a total return of more than 17% through Tuesday’s close, some strategists have struck a more cautious tone for the very near-term heading into the new year.
“This market continues to defy physics. It’s another week and another all-time high,” Tony Zabiegala, senior wealth advisor at Strategic Wealth Partners, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. “But I’m really struggling to understand how we’re in a better spot today – stimulus checks or not – than we were a year ago pre-Covid, pre-lockdowns, all that.”
“I feel that we really pulled forward those 17% of gains from 2021 already,” he added. “Technicals are pointing to a continued market melt-up. However a quick market correction to start off the year wouldn’t surprise me at all. We’ve had slowing economic data and that is the biggest catalyst in my eyes … I’m just struggling to find organic growth catalysts, and it’s being very difficult to find something to grab onto.”
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10:00 a.m. ET: Pending home sales drop for a third straight month in November
Pending home sales in November slipped for a third consecutive month, and by a wider margin than expected, as housing market activity pulled back slightly after a breakneck growth surge.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), contract signings for new homes declined 2.6% in November from October, whereas consensus economists were looking for pending home sales to stay flat month-over-month, Bloomberg data showed. Over last year, pending home sales remained higher by 16%, though this was short of the 21% rise anticipated.
“The latest monthly decline is largely due to the shortage of inventory and fast-rising home prices,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement. “It is important to keep in mind that the current sales and prices are far stronger than a year ago.”
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9:31 a.m. ET: Stocks open higher, closing in on record levels
Here were the main moves in markets, as of 9:31 a.m. ET Wednesday:
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S&P 500 (^GSPC): 3,738.73, up 11.69 points or 0.31%
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Dow (^DJI): 30,419.62, up 83.95 points or 0.28%
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Nasdaq (^IXIC): 12,917.15, up 66.66 points or 0.52%
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Crude (CL=F): -$0.27 (-0.56%) to $47.73 a barrel
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Gold (GC=F): +$2.20 (+0.12%) to $1,885.10 per ounce
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10-year Treasury (^TNX): +0.3 bps to yield 0.938%
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8:30 a.m. ET: Goods trade deficit widens to a record in November
The U.S. goods trade gap yawned further to a record in November, with the deficit totaling $84.8 billion during the month, the Commerce Department said Friday. This followed a deficit of $80.4 billion in October, and came in considerably larger than the $81.5 billion gap consensus economists had expected, according to Bloomberg data.
The increase came as imports surged faster than exports, with November imports growing by $5.5 billion over October to $212 billion. This rise came amid a jump in demand for consumer goods, with these imports soaring 17.6% year-over-year.
Exports, meanwhile, rose just $1.1 billion to $127.2 billion, and remain 6.6% lower than they were a year ago.
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7:13 a.m. ET Wednesday: Stock futures rise, shaking off Tuesday’s declines
Here were the main moves in markets as of 7:13 a.m. ET Wednesday:
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S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,733.5, up 13.5 points or 0.36%
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Dow futures (YM=F): 30,331.00, up 93 points or 0.31%
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Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 12,888.00, up 47 points or 0.37%
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Crude (CL=F): +$0.45 (+0.94%) to $48.45 a barrel
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Gold (GC=F): -$1.00 (-0.05%) to $1,881.90 per ounce
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10-year Treasury (^TNX): +1.6 bps to yield 0.951%
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6:01 p.m. ET Tuesday: Stock futures tick higher
Here were the main moves in markets as the overnight session kicked off Tuesday evening:
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S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,724.25, up 4.25 points or 0.11%
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Dow futures (YM=F): 30,265.00, up 27 points or 0.09%
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Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 12,855.25, up 14.25 points or 0.11%
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