Closing Stock Market Summary
The stock market rebounded today following a late-session slide on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%; the S&P 500 climbed 1.0%; the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3%; and the Russell 2000 gained 1.7%.
Gains had been less robust throughout most of the session until buying increased over the last 30 minutes of trading, leaving the major indices near their highs of the day.
Today's buying activity was broad-based. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) closed with a 1.2% gain and all 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher.
Advancers had a better than 4-to-1 lead over decliners at the NYSE and a nearly 3-to-1 lead at the Nasdaq.
Semiconductor stocks were noticeably strong, providing a measure of support to the broader market, after better-than-expected results and guidance from Micron (MU 85.48, +6.79, +8.6%). The PHLX Semiconductor Index registered a 2.8% gain.
The upside bias was also supported by a continued inclination to buy on weakness, a batch of economic data that meshed with the soft landing narrative, and a drop in oil prices ($73.89/bbl, -0.35, -0.5%) related to a Reuters report that Angola is leaving OPEC, which may leave OPEC with less control on production levels. WTI crude oil futures had dropped below $73.00/bbl earlier in the session.
The 2-yr note yield fell two basis points to 4.33% and the 10-yr note yield settled one basis point higher at 3.89%.
As a reminder, the November Personal Income and Spending report will be released 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. This report will feature the Fed's preferred inflation gauge in the form of the core PCE Price Index.
- Nasdaq Composite: +43.0%
- S&P 500: +23.6%
- Russell 2000: +14.5%
- S&P Midcap 400: +14.3%
- Dow Jones industrial Average: +12.8%
Reviewing today's economic data:
- November Leading Economic Index -0.5% (Briefing.com consensus -0.4%) vs downwardly revised -1.0% (from -0.8%) for October
- Initial jobless claims for the week ending December 16 increased by 2,000 to 205,000 (Briefing.com consensus 218,000) and continuing jobless claims for the week ending December 9 decreased by 1,000 to 1.865 million.
- The key takeaway from the report is virtually the same as last week, because initial claims were virtually the same in the latest week: the level of initial claims is still a long way from being associated with levels registered during a recession.
- The third estimate for Q3 real GDP was revised lower, but it was still a heady 4.9% (Briefing.com consensus 5.2%) versus the second estimate of 5.2% and 2.1% in the second quarter. The GDP Price Deflator was revised down to 3.3% (Briefing.com consensus 3.6%) from 3.6% in the second estimate and 1.7% in the second quarter.
- The key takeaway from the report is that the downward revision largely reflected a downward revision to consumer spending growth to 3.1% from 3.6% in the second estimate.
- The December Philadelphia Fed Index checked in at -10.5 (Briefing.com consensus -3.0) versus -5.9 for November. A number below 0.0 for this series is indicative of contraction.
- The key takeaway from this report for a market anticipating a soft landing is that most future activity indicators rose, which points to widespread expectations for overall growth for the next six months.
Friday's economic calendar features:
- 08:30 ET: November Personal Income (consensus 0.4%; Prior 0.2%)
- 08:30 ET: November Personal Spending (consensus 0.2%; Prior 0.2%)
- 08:30 ET: November PCE Price Index ( consensus 0.1%; Prior 0.0%)
- 08:30 ET: November Core PCE Price Index (consensus 0.2%; Prior 0.2%)
- 08:30 ET: November Durable Goods Orders (consensus 2.5%; Prior -5.4%)
- 08:30 ET: November Durable Goods Orders - Ex Transportation (consensus 0.2%; Prior 0.0%)
- 10:00 ET: November New Home Sales( consensus 689K; Prior 679K)
- 10:00 ET: December Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Final (consensus 69.7; Prior 69.4)