Stock markets have been struggling overnight to build on yesterday’s US market rebounds of 1.6% for the Dow and 2.4% for the NASDAQ, suggesting that it may have been more of a relief rally easing oversold conditions than a traditional Santa Claus Rally. The Hang Seng gained 0.5% overnight but the Nikkei, Dax and FTSE, plus the three main US index futures contracts are all essentially flat so far today. Commodity action is also mixed with WTI crude oil flat, natural gas up 2.3%, and copper up 0.6%. Gold and Bitcoin are both up 0.2%.
It’s another light day for economic and business news overall. The third crack at US Q3 GDP (2.3% vs street/previous 2.1%) saw a small upward revision, while the inflation component held steady at 5.3%. US existing home sales are due at 10:00 am EDT with the street expecting a reding of 6.52M. US weekly DOE crude oil inventories are due at 10:30 am EDT with the street expecting a 0.3 mmbbl drawdown.
An interesting beneficiary of supply chain disruptions was US used car retailer Carmax, who announced sales of $8.5B were up 64% from a year ago, while selling prices were up 58% as ongoing chip shortages for new cars drove consumers into the pre-owned market. Cybersecurity software producer Blackberry beat the street on earnings ($0.00 vs street -$0.07) and sales ($184M vs street $174M and year ago $218M.
New Video: SIA Wealth December Webinar Replay
A replay of the SIA Wealth Market Outlook Webinar with Colin Cieszynski – Chief Market Strategist, answering questions related to holiday seasonality, central banks, consumer confidence, cryptocurrencies and energy, is now available.
YouTube Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuIqWBluCF0
