TheChek News Flow

Asian Market Update: Equities take the Dectaper in stride; Yen hits 5-year lows before recovering some ground

***Observations/Insights*** - Outgoing Fed chief Bernanke is said to have succeeded in "threading the needle", delivering both the beginning of the end of "QE infinity" while still convincing the markets that any policy stimulus exit would be of a highly gradual and measure sort. Despite the $10B taper announcement and subsequent higher USD, stocks were up sharply after the Fed said the current fed funds rate will be maintained "well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5%". Asian indices are trading mixed - Nikkei225 hit 6-year highs on the heels of a steep selloff in the yen while S&P/ASX is up 1.5%. Kospi is flat, with weakness in the yen said to pose risks to South Korea's export sector. Korean markets are also disappointed with a landmark ruling that bonuses should be included when determining overtime pay, potentially lifting corporate labor costs. Shanghai Comp is also little changed, as Shibor rates continue to ratchet higher with the PBoC on the sidelines now for more than 2 weeks.

***Economic Data*** - (CN) China Jan-Nov SOE profit CNY2.15T, +8.2% y/y, Rev CNY41.9T, +11% y/y - (JP) Japan investors bought net ¥110.5B in foreign bonds last week vs bought net ¥413.2B in prior week (10th straight week of net purchases); Foreign Investors bought net ¥619.8B in Japan stocks v bought net ¥113.8B in prior week - (JP) JAPAN OCT ALL INDUSTRY ACTIVITY INDEX M/M: -0.2% V -0.3%E - (JP) Japan Iron and Steel Federation: Nov crude steel output 9.26Mt, -2.8% m/m, +8.9% y/y - (AU) AUSTRALIA NOV RBA FX TRANSACTIONS (A$): 444M V 648M PRIOR - (NZ) NEW ZEALAND NOV TRADE BALANCE (NZ$): +183.0M V -168M PRIOR (First November trade surplus since 1991) - (NZ) NEW ZEALAND Q3 GDP Q/Q: 1.4% V 1.1%E; Y/Y: 3.5% V 3.3%E

***Fixed Income/Commodities/Currencies*** - (CN) PBoC won't conduct open market operations (OMO) in today's session (5th consecutive session of halted operations); Zero net position this week v drained CNY37B prior - (CN) Daily Shibor fixings: O/N: 3.8460 % v 3.5880% prior (4rd consecutive rise. highest since Nov 24th); 1-week: 6.4720% v 5.9020% prior (4rd consecutive rise, multi-week high, highest since June 26th) - (CN) China Qinhuangdao coal price rises to CNY620-630/t (10th consecutive rise; highest since May) - GLD: SPDR Gold Trust ETF daily holdings fall 4.2 tonnes to 812.6 tonnes (lowest since Jan 2009)

- USD/CNY: (CN) PBoC sets yuan mid point at 6.1183 v 6.1105 prior setting (weakest yuan setting since Dec 5th) - USD/KRW: Rises above KRW1,060; 2-week highs

- Among the majors, reaction to the Fed taper start was particularly evident in the yen pairs, sending USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, and GBP/JPY to 5-year highs above 104.30, 142.80, and 171.10 respectively. Yen-selling is consolidated in the Asian session, as traders question the validity of the spike in the absence of a sell-off in the shorter-end of the US yield curve. EUR/USD initially spiked to 1.38 before reversing to trade closer to 1.3650, while GBP/USD remains resilient ahead of the overnight release of UK retail data. NZD/USD briefly rose after better than expected Q3 GDP, but succumbed to broader USD strength. AUD/USD found support around $0.8820 - a fresh 3-year low. USD was also firmer against the Asia-Pac emerging FX - USD/KRW hit 2-week highs above 1,060 and USD/SGD hit 3-month highs above 1.2640

***Speakers/Political/In the Papers*** - (CN) China Beige Book: Economy strengthened in Q4; Companies' borrowing shrank - (CN) China PBOC Q4 survey: China bankers confidence index rise to 71.3% v 61% in Q3; China household inflation expectations rise - (CN) China MOFCOM official: Outlook for foreign trade in 2014 is difficult - China Daily - (CN) Former PBoC adviser/director of National Economic Research Institute Fan Gang reiterates that China economy has "basically completed soft-landing" - (CN) China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to monitor banks' off-balance sheet operations - Chinese press - (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Suga: Fed made appropriate decision based on economic data - (JP) Japan may set FY14/15 GDP target at 1.4% - financial press - (KR) South Korea vice Fin Min Choo: South Korea closely monitoring KRW/JPY rate - (KR) South Korea court ruled regular bonuses should be included when determining overtime pay, benefits; Likely to result in sharp increase in labor costs

- (US) Senate approves two-year budget agreement (as expected) - (US) Moody's: Wind-down of Fed's QE will likely lead to rates increasing globally; sees move toward normalization of monetary policy in US relatively finite, temporary impact

***Equities*** Market Snapshot (as of 04:30 GMT): - Nikkei225 +1.6%, S&P/ASX +1.5%, Kospi flat, Shanghai Composite -0.1%, Hang Seng flat, Mar S&P500 -0.2% at 1,801, Feb gold -1.2% at $1,220, Jan crude oil -0.1% at $97.71/brl

US markets: - ALIM: Enter into labeling discussions with the FDA for ILUVIEN, agree advisory committee no longer necessary; +77.7% afterhours; PSDV +58.3% afterhours - AKS: Guides Q4 $0.02-0.06 (ex tax benefits) v -$0.03e; +7.4% afterhours - SCS: Reports Q3 $0.18 (incl items) v $0.26e, R$784M v $761Me (2 ests); +4.4% afterhours - PAYX: Reports Q2 $0.43 v $0.42e, R$610.5M v $599Me; +2.0% afterhours - ORCL: Reports Q2 $0.69 (adj) v $0.67e, R$9.3B v $9.18Be; Guides Q3 Non-GAAP EPS $0.68-0.72 v $0.70e (constant currency), Non-GAAP Rev +3-7% y/y (constant currency, ex 1% FX headwind) v +4.2%e (implies $9.3-9.6B v $9.38Be) - conf call; +1.3% afterhours - TGT: Said to be hit by a theft of credit card data during Black Friday weekend - financial press; -0.4% afterhours

Notable movers by sector: - Consumer discretionary: Milan Station Holdings 1150.HK -6.3% (profit warning); Beijing Jingxi Tourism Development 000802.CN +10.0% (continues momentum on acquisition); Ohsho Food Service Corp 9936.JP -2.9% (president shot and reported dead) - Industrials: Shenzhen Techand Ecology & Environment 300197.CN +3.2%, Shanghai Safbon Water Service 300262.CN +3.2%, Beijing Water Business Doctor 300055.CN +5.7% (China calls for environment protection); Worley Parsons Ltd WOR.AU -1.6% (receives legal notice) - Financials: Simsen International Corp 993.HK +5.4% (positive profit alert); National Australia Bank Ltd NAB.AU +1.3% (comments from AGM) - Materials: Aquila AQA.AU +1.7% (Baosteel purchases shares); Toll Holdings TOL.AU +1.6% (awarded contract) - Energy: Santos Ltd STO.AU +2.5%, Origin Energy ORG.AU +1.7% (enters gas purchase & sale agreement) - Healthcare: Guilin Layn Natural Ingredient 002166.CN +3.0%, Shenzhen Neptunus Bioengineering 000078.CN +0.6%, Beijing Tiantan Biological Products 600161.CN +6.4% (Guangdong Province reports 1 new H7N9 case) - Technology: Samsung Electronics 005930.KR +1.8% (launches products)

Bristol Nears $3 Billion Deal to Sell Stake in Diabetes Venture to Astra

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY +2.92% is nearing a deal to sell its stake in a diabetes venture to partner AstraZeneca AZN.LN +0.66% PLC, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would reverse a multibillion-dollar investment Bristol made in diabetes just last year.

The deal between the two companies could be valued at more than $3 billion, some of the people said.

Just last year, Bristol expanded its commitment to diabetes by acquiring Amylin Pharmaceuticals for $5.3 billion. Bristol then bundled Amylin into its long-running diabetes partnership with AstraZeneca, which paid Bristol $3.4 billion for a half share of Amylin's products, chiefly the drugs Byetta and Bydureon. Earlier this year, Bristol and AstraZeneca deepened their partnership by merging their diabetes-drug marketing teams.

But sales at the diabetes venture, which was established in 2007 to develop the therapy Onglyza, have disappointed analysts. Last month, Bristol said it would end its own, separate efforts to develop new diabetes drugs because it didn't see enough opportunity in the market.

Bristol reported $1.2 billion in sales from the business's four main diabetes products during the first nine months of this year, while AstraZeneca reported $546 million.

In going their separate ways, AstraZeneca and Bristol—two companies seeking to overcome aging product portfolios—are taking opposing bets on diabetes.

Drugs treating the condition had $36 billion in world-wide sales last year and are projected to generate nearly $61 billion in revenues in 2018, according to EvaluatePharma.

Sales are rising as lifestyle changes in both developed countries like the U.S. and emerging markets such as China and India produce millions of diabetics seeking to control their blood-sugar levels and avoid life-threatening complications.

Yet the very size of the market has attracted nearly every big drug maker, including Sanofi SA, Merck & Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S. And health plans and governments have been pressuring companies to control prices. Also, health regulators have proven cautious about approving new medicines, out of concern for possible side effects on the heart and other organs.

Last week, the AstraZeneca-Bristol partnership received a boost when a panel of advisers recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve an experimental treatment for Type 2 diabetes called dapagliflozin. The companies had hoped dapagliflozin would be the first of a new kind of diabetes treatment to enter the market, but a decision on approval in the U.S. was delayed by concerns about cancer risks. Meantime, Johnson & Johnson's JNJ +2.18% agent, Invokana, was greenlighted in March. Eli Lilly LLY +2.62% & Co. is developing its own version.

To prepare for generic competition to top-selling products like bloodthinner Plavix, Bristol has gone on an extreme diet, shedding a third of its employees, half of its manufacturing plants and baby formula and other non-pharmaceutical units.

Last year, Bristol and partner Pfizer Inc. PFE +2.09% began rolling out a stroke-preventing pill called Eliquis. Its sales have started more slowly than Wall Street expected, though some analysts still forecast $5 billion in annual sales.

On the bright side, Bristol is pioneering the use of therapies that harness the immune system to fight cancer. A skin-cancer "immunotherapy" called Yervoy is already on sale, with $700 million in sales through the third quarter. Bristol is in the late stages of developing another of the drugs for skin, lung and kidney cancers, which analysts estimate could generate billions of dollars in sales.

AstraZeneca's new CEO, Pascal Soriot, is racing to revive the company's prospects and has been doing deals to restock its portfolio and drive the company into specialty drugs. Among the acquisitions engineered by Mr. Soriot are deals that could be worth more than $1.6 billion for cancer biotech Amplimmune Inc. and respiratory drug maker Pearl Therapeutics Inc.

AstraZeneca, of London, has suffered a number of expensive drug-development failures in recent years, thwarting its efforts to bring new medicines to market.

Schizophrenia treatment Seroquel, once one of AstraZeneca's big sellers, has been clobbered by generic competition. Patents on other drugs, including Nexium for heartburn and Crestor for cholesterol, are set to expire in the next few years. This week, AstraZeneca said it was aware of reports that Nexium was already facing competition in the U.S. from a generic rival and was pursuing legal action.

DOJ victory in SAC insider trading trial

A former top aide to SAC Capital’s founder was found guilty of insider trading on Wednesday, handing the US government another victory in its long-running crackdown on Wall Street corruption. After just a day of deliberations the jury convicted Michael Steinberg, a former SAC portfolio manager, of five counts of conspiracy and securities fraud for trading shares of Dell and Nvidia after learning confidential earnings results in 2008 and 2009 from his research analyst. The verdict was slightly delayed after Steinberg appeared to faint before it was delivered, and the jury was asked to leave the court for a short while. The trades netted more than $1m in profits for SAC, the eponymous hedge fund founded by Steven Cohen. Mr Steinberg faces up to 20 years in prison. The US attorney’s office in Manhattan has not lost an insider trading case since its crackdown began in 2009. Mr Steinberg is the 77th person to be convicted of insider trading. The trial was the toughest test of insider trading yet for the government since its case rested largely on the testimony of Jon Horvath, the former SAC analyst who pleaded guilty in a deal with the government. Mr Horvath told the jury that after a bad performance period Mr Steinberg told him to get edgy "proprietary information", which he interpreted to mean inside information. Prosecutors buttressed their case with emails between the men sharing information on gross margins and revenues for Dell ahead of its quarterly results announcement. In one example, just before Dell’s August 2008 earnings were released, Mr Horvath sent an email to Mr Steinberg with details of Dell’s gross profit margin, which read: "Please keep to yourself as obviously not well known." Mr Steinberg replied: "Yes normally we would never divulge data like this, so please be discreet." But the government was challenged because Mr Steinberg was at the end of a long chain that linked back to company insiders. Mr Steinberg’s lawyer, Barry Berke, sought to discredit Mr Horvath, pointing out that he had pleaded guilty on the eve of his own criminal trial. Over five days of cross examination during a three-week trial, Mr Berke pressed Mr Horvath who said he did not recall telling Mr Steinberg his company source on the information. In a sign of confidence, Mr Steinberg called no witnesses and did not testify. Mr Steinberg was the first former SAC employee to go to trial. Last month SAC pleaded guilty to insider trading and agreed to wind down and pay a record $1.8bn fine to resolve criminal and civil charges. Six other former SAC employees have pleaded guilty to insider trading while at the hedge fund. Mathew Martoma, a former SAC money manager, is due to face trial on January 6 for allegedly trading drug company stocks in advance of negative clinical trial results. He has pleaded not guilty.

GE predicts sales growth and cash returns

General Electric expects its revenue growth to accelerate next year as the US economy continues to strengthen, the US manufacturing and financial group told investors on Wednesday. It also forecast double-digit growth in earnings from its industrial operations, offsetting a decline in profits at GE Capital, its finance arm. In an annual presentation to analysts and investors, Jeff Immelt, GE’s chief executive, said the company would have a "ton of cash", with about $90bn available over the next three years, much of which could be used for share buybacks and raising the dividend. Mr Immelt said he expected "pretty good" 4 per cent to 7 per cent organic growth in industrial revenues next year, an acceleration from the roughly 2 per cent rise expected for 2013, which is at the bottom end of the 2 per cent to 6 per cent range the company forecast a year ago. He also projected a continued widening in profit margins, although at a slower pace than this year, when GE expects a 0.7 percentage point increase to 15.8 per cent, helped by a cost-cutting programme that has cut administrative expenses as a proportion of sales. He set a margin target of 17 per cent for 2016. GE last week announced a 16 per cent rise in its quarterly dividend, the largest since 2010, which Mr Immelt said reflected a plan for the proportion of earnings paid out to shareholders to"drift up". The $90bn of available cash will be generated by GE’s industrial and financial operations, and from the planned spin-off of the North American retail finance business, which is scheduled for 2014-15. A chart in GE’s presentation suggested only about a quarter of that cash would be needed for capital investment and organic growth, with the rest available for dividends, share buybacks and acquisitions. Mr Immelt reiterated his previous statements that GE was not looking for a large deal, saying it was focused on businesses valued in the $1bn-$4bn range, usually with focused technology. "We just don’t plan to change that," he said. "We see a lot of good deals that we like in that context." The prediction of faster revenue growth is based on GE’s expectation that the US economy is continuing to strengthen, while Europe remains "sluggish". In spite of the slowdown in China’s economy in recent years, Mr Immelt said the country was still "a positive", as GE’s businesses such as healthcare and aviation benefited from the country’s shift to providing more consumer goods and services. He said there were still great opportunities in China. In five years' time, the markets for medical diagnostic imaging equipment and gas-fired power generation could be bigger in China than in the US, while the market for commercial aviation could be about the same, he said. GE’s shares rose 1.4 per cent to close at $27.41

JPMorgan: 5 Investment Tips for 2014

JPMorgan's David Kelly has drafted a five-point list. Among his resolutions: "income is more important than yield." r Entering 2014, the global investment environment is as challenging as ever. After a super 2013 in returns, U.S. equities can no longer be considered inexpensive and yet still look attractive relative to the prospective returns on savings accounts and long-term bonds. Long-term bond yields are higher than a year ago but could still rise further as the Federal Reserve begins to reduce quantitative easing.

While many international stocks appear more attractive than their U.S. counterparts, both developed nations and emerging markets face challenges in returning to a path of steady growth in economic output and earnings.

However, amidst all this uncertainty, investors should remember that a great deal of their personal investment performance depends not on the behavior of markets but rather on the discipline with which they approach investing.

With this in mind, here are five investment resolutions to consider for 2014:

REMEMBER TO REBALANCE: As part of any long-term plan, investors should have a strategic asset allocation, divvying up their portfolio into domestic stocks, international stocks, fixed income, alternatives, cash, etc. Sometimes, because one asset class appears particularly cheap or expensive, it makes sense to deviate from this allocation. However, very often the movement of markets themselves will alter this allocation. As a simple example, a portfolio that was composed of 50% stocks and 50% bonds at the start of 2012 (as represented by the S&P 500 and the Barclay's Aggregate respectively) would now be 59% stocks and 41% bonds. While there is still a case for an overweight to stocks relative to a normal portfolio, a reasonable question to ask is whether this shift in asset allocation is justified by a different view of the world from two years ago and, if not, whether the portfolio should be rebalanced back to its original allocation provided this can be achieved in a tax efficient manner.

INCOME IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YIELD: In recent years, many investors have sought out high yielding bonds and stocks as a way to get a portfolio to supply a stream of income without having to sell any securities. The problem with this strategy is that the Federal Reserve has done its best to push down yields across the bond market and investors searching for yield have pushed up the prices of high-yielding equity securities eating into their long-term prospective returns. Moreover, there is no law in finance or logic that says an investor cannot sell principal. A more logical approach for 2014 may be to contemplate an appropriate income distribution from a portfolio and potentially achieve it through a systematic withdrawal from the portfolio. If that means selling growth stocks as they go up, so be it. It actually may be more tax efficient than trying to achieve this income from taking the coupon payment on a high-yield bond. In any event, investors should separate the issues of portfolio construction, which should be done solely from the perspective of risk and expected return, from the issue of how to generate an income from that portfolio, which can be achieved just as easily from capital gains as from dividends and interest payments.

AVOID BUYING HIGH AND SELLING LOW: Historical data clearly show that mutual fund investors pile in at the top of a market rally and get out at the bottom of a market crash. This inevitably leaves them with lower returns than if they had simply decided to buy and hold. But how do you avoid doing this? Knowing the current level of the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment may help provide some guidance. Since 1970, this index has averaged a reading of 85.3, with six discernible peaks (averaging 99.9) and seven clear troughs (averaging 62.3). Over that period of time, if you had bought stocks at the peaks, the S&P 500 rose by just 1% over the following 12 months. On the other hand, if you had bought at the troughs, the S&P500 rose by an average of 22%.

As this is being written, the index is at 82.5, and is thus close to its mean. However, the next time people are very depressed will probably be a time to buy and the next time they are exuberant will likely be a time to sell.

REVIEW WHETHER YOU HAVE ENOUGH INVESTED OVERSEAS: At the end of the third quarter, international equities accounted for 52% of the global stock market. However, U.S. investors, across households and institutions, had just 18% of their equity money in non-U.S. investments. There are some legitimate reasons for having an outsized proportion of your portfolio in domestic issues. In particular, assuming that most of your expenses are denominated in dollars, having most of your assets in U.S. dollars avoids currency risk. Still, given the cyclical opportunities in a recovering Europe and the long-term opportunities in emerging markets, investors seem to have too much of a "home bias". 2014 should be a year in which to take a more global view.

DON'T IRRATIONALLY HIDE LONG-TERM MONEY IN SHORT-TERM INVESTMENTS: American investors have over $10 trillion sitting in "cash" accounts including savings accounts, money market mutual funds, time deposits and cash in Keogh and IRA accounts. Most of this money is not being used for day-to-day transactions but is being held as cash because cash is seen as being "safe" or because investors simply do not know what to do with it. This is almost certainly a mistake. Central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have all deliberately pushed the yield on cash accounts to close to zero in an attempt to stimulate economic growth but also to induce investors to take risks. Not surprisingly, balanced portfolios of stocks, bonds and alternatives routinely beat cash in terms of total return. While in any week there is no guarantee that balanced investing will beat cash, in the long-run it has done so with some consistency, particularly when cash yields are so low.

In summary, 2014 should be a year for thoughtful investing. It should be a year to consider rebalancing, to determine if you are invested for income rather than yield, to be confident you are investing based on logic rather than emotion and to think about more international investing. Most of all, it should be a year to verify that your long-term money is invested in long-term assets.

After Hours Summary: ORCL unchanged following earnings/guidance; AKS & SCS +7% on guidance; SMTC -18% on guidance

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings: SCS +7%, AKS +7%, STAY +6%, PAYX +2%, ORCL unch, BGCP unch

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: ALIM +63% (co and FDA Enter Into Labeling Discussions for ILUVIEN, Agree Advisory Committee No Longer Necessary); PSDV +41% (co and FDA Enter Into Labeling Discussions for ILUVIEN, Agree Advisory Committee No Longer Necessary); HYGS +8% (selected as a participating partner in DOE project award to supply hydrogen fuel cell modules to the Center for Transportation and the Environment) USU +7% (was informed that Department of Energy Prepared to Extend American Centrifuge RD&D Program Three Months); TRLA +4% (S.A.C. Capital discloses 5.2% passive stake in 13G filing)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings: SMTC -18%, APOG -2%, MLHR -1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: CVM -8% (co announces proposed public offering of common stock and warrants (amount not given)); GIG -8% (announces proposed public offering of common stock (no amount given))

Closing Market Summary: Stocks Notch Record Highs as Fed Trims Asset Purchases Equities settled on their highs after dovish forward guidance from the Federal Reserve offset the immediate impact of a tapering announcement. Although the Federal Open Market Committee reduced the size of its monthly asset purchases from $85 billion to $75 billion, it pledged to keep the target Fed Funds Rate near its current levels ‘well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5%.'

The dovish guidance was also the likely reason for Treasuries retracing all of their post-announcement losses. The benchmark 10-yr yield ended with a five basis point gain at 2.89%, which is essentially where it traded before the afternoon announcement.

During his press conference, Chairman Bernanke elaborated on the decision, saying the Committee plans to introduce further gradual reductions should economic data continue showing measurable improvement.

The S&P 500 surged 1.7%, wiping out its entire December loss. The index ended at a fresh record closing high as nine of ten sectors added at least 1.0%.

Heavily-weighted financials (+2.4%) and health care (+2.4%) finished in the lead. The health care sector received a considerable boost from biotechnology as the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 219.31, +5.92) rose 2.8%.

Despite the relative strength of the two top-weighted sectors, the S&P 500 was kept from registering additional gains by the underperformance of technology (+0.8%). The sector lagged throughout the session as its top component, Apple (AAPL 550.77, -4.22), weighed. The largest tech stock fell 0.8% in the wake of Jabil Circuit's (JBL 15.67, -4.05) disappointing earnings report. Comments from China Mobile (CHL 52.61, +0.81) also weighed as the company said it is still working on an Apple iPhone deal after last week's reports implied the deal was nearing completion.

Today's broad gains overshadowed another key laggard, Ford (F 15.65, -1.05). The stock lost 6.3% after issuing fiscal-year 2014 guidance that fell short of expectations. Specifically, the company said it expects FY14 auto revenue to be about equal with FY13 (the current consensus calls for 11% growth) while adding its global auto operating margin target of 8-9% is at risk. The guidance update pressured rival General Motors (GM 41.27, -0.26) which slid 0.6%.

The removal of the uncertainty associated with today's FOMC decision caused the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 13.80, -2.41) to slump to last week's levels.

Today's economic data focused on housing. The weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 5.5% to follow last week's 1.0% increase.

November building permits rose to 1,007,000 from the prior month's upwardly revised rate of 1,039,000 (from 1,034,000). That was above the pace of 983,000 that had been expected among economists polled..

Regarding Housing Starts, September starts came in at 873,000 while the consensus expected a reading of 915,000. For October, Housing Starts were reported at 889,000 against the 920,000 expected by the consensus. Lastly, November starts increased to 1,091,000 while a reading of 950,000 was broadly anticipated.

Tomorrow, weekly initial claims will be reported at 8:30 ET while Existing Home Sales for November will be reported at 10:00 ET. In addition, November Leading Indicators and the December Philadelphia Fed Survey will also be released at 10:00 ET.

o Nasdaq +34.8% YTD o Russell 2000 +33.5% YTD o S&P 500 +27.0% YTD o DJIA +23.4% YTD