Stocks began the week on an up note, and the futures are indicating a slightly positive start to today’s session. In overnight trading, markets in Asia closed mostly in the green, while the major European exchanges are all showing gains. Meanwhile, oil prices have edged higher, with West Texas Intermediate up a few cents, to around $72.50 a barrel.
The rally in stocks has continued, helped along by the Federal Reserve keeping its overnight target lending rate unchanged last week, and its comments indicating that there would be a minimum of three rate cuts next year. Wall Street now places a greater-than-60% probability that the lead bank will cut rates by a quarter percentage point at its March 2024 meeting.
In economic news, this morning the Census Bureau reported that housing starts for November came in at 1.56 million, an increase of 9.3% year over year, versus 1.359 million in October, and above the consensus estimate of 1.36 million. Meanwhile, building permits, a more forward-looking indicator, totaled 1.46 million, down from the previous month’s tally of 1.498 million, and slightly below expectations of 1.47 million.
Tomorrow brings another data point on the health of the housing sector with the National Association of Realtors’ tally for existing home sales last month. Wall Street is looking for a slight dip to 3.78 million, compared to 3.79 million in October. On Thursday, the Department of Labor will release its latest figures on initial jobless claims, where an uptick to 218,000 is expected, versus the prior week’s 202,000.
On Friday we will get the report on durable goods orders for November, with consensus calling for a year-over-year increase of 2.0%, versus a decline of 5.4% in October. Also, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will announce the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price Index for November. The year-over-year increase is expected to tick down to 2.8%, from the 3.0% recorded the month before. Lastly, the Census Bureau will release new home sales totals for last month, with Wall Street looking for the tally to increase by about 16,000 compared to October, to 695,000.
Summing up Monday’s market moves, the Dow Jones Industrials ended at the unchanged mark, the S&P 500 gained 21 points (0.5%), and the tech-focused NASDAQ advanced 91 points (0.6%). – Mario Ferro
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
CLICK HERE for more information on our services or call 1-800-VALUELINE (1-800-825-8354). Our account managers are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Time.
