The U.S. stock market looks to get off to a weak start at the opening bell today, as investors return from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend (the market was open for an abbreviated session on Friday). Notably, the broad equity market futures have been under pressure earlier this morning, partially due to unrest in China over that country’s heavy-handed approach to dealing with COVID-19. No major economic reports are scheduled for today. Tomorrow, the latest monthly home price data will be released, which should interest investors watching the housing market. The numbers will likely show that home prices have started to soften, as buyers contend with mortgage rates around the 7% mark. Also on Tuesday, we will get a look at the most recent consumer confidence numbers, which should warrant some attention, especially as the retail sector is currently in the spotlight. Elsewhere, at the end of this week, the government will post the monthly employment report. Economists, on average, expect that around 200,000 jobs were added to the economy in November (which would be down slightly from October, and foresee an unemployment rate remaining unchanged at the 3.7% mark. Attention will also be paid to the hourly earnings figures, with analysts wanting to see upward wage pressures starting to ease. It should be mentioned that the Federal Reserve will be studying the employment numbers quite carefully, as a late input for its thinking as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will make monetary policy decisions at its upcoming December meeting.
On the corporate front, a handful of technology companies are set to deliver their quarterly financial results this week. Tomorrow, Intuit (INTU) and NetApp (NTAP) will weigh in with their numbers. On Wednesday, we will hear from Salesforce (CRM), which is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Through most of 2022, investors have shunned shares of technology companies, as they tend to trade at relatively elevated price-to-earnings multiples. Notably, in a rising interest-rate environment, traders tend to be less optimistic about businesses that strive to expand quickly, but fail to provide immediate returns, such as dividends, to shareholders.
From a technical view, the stock market has advanced dramatically since finding support in mid-October. The S&P 500 Index is now approaching the 200-day moving average (situated near 4,055). It should be noted that driving stocks beyond this key technical level may prove to be a difficult task for the bulls. (For perspective, the last rally faltered near this technical point in August, with the market establishing new lows soon after). Clearly, traders adhering to technical systems will be paying close attention if the 200-day moving average is approached again in the days ahead. - Adam Rosner
At the time of this article's writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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