Before The Bell
Despite a weak session yesterday, equity futures are up sharply this morning, suggesting that the U.S. stock market is positioned to move higher today. It seems that for now, traders may be willing to overlook some of the problems that have been putting a damper on investor sentiment. Such issues include the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which continues to spread across the globe and could intensify over the holiday season; the Federal Reserve’s plans to lift interest rates in the year ahead; and Washington’s latest bout of political gridlock.
In the economic arena, today will be a light day with few reports scheduled. Tomorrow, however, the pace picks up considerably, as we will get a look at the final estimate for third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP), the latest monthly existing home sales figures, and the consumer confidence index for the month of December. All are likely to be followed closely; in particular, the consumer plays an important role in the broader economy, and investors probably want to see that sentiment remains strong in the current environment.
In corporate news, a couple of important companies recently delivered their quarterly results. Yesterday afternoon, we heard from NIKE (NKE), a leading athletic apparel manufacturer. Wall Street seems quite pleased with the report, and that stock is moving higher in pre-market trading. In addition, Micron (MU), a sizable technology company, weighed in with encouraging results and provided a constructive outlook. These reports are important, as they may provide some information about the various supply-chain problems that have been creating challenges for companies and contributing to inflationary pressures.
The stock market has been quite volatile lately, with the broader market average unsuccessfully attempting to advance to new high territory on a number of occasions over the past several weeks. At this point, the stock market seems to be having trouble finding direction, and traders may need time to adjust to a shifting environment. Some of the recent market volatility may be due to investors repositioning their portfolios. In general, we have noticed that shares of growth companies that are not supported by healthy profits have been falling out of favor with traders, while more traditional dividend-paying stocks, which tend to be easier to value and hold during turbulent markets, seem to be gaining ground.
– Adam Rosner
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
