The S&P 500 added to yesterday’s gains and is now up 5.5% from the lows hit on November 16th. Those in the camp that the positives (global liquidity through low rates, Chines growth, sustained low growth in the U.S. and an easing of the woes associated with the fiscal cliff and European debt) carried the day today as the S&P 500 closed 0.43% higher.
The movements of the market today were encouraging. The news from the fiscal cliff talks was at first glance quite negative. Leaders from both sides talked of a lack of progress and the failure of the other party to make any concessions. The market moved to the flat line when these items began to hit the tape, but the market was able to shake these headlines off and move higher throughout the afternoon session.
Same store sales for retailers came out today and were disappointing almost across the board. High end retailer Tiffany sold off sharply on disappointing sales figures, the stock finished off over 6% on the day. Superstorm Sandy accounted for a great deal of the weakness. Black Friday and cyber Monday sales figures point to a robust holiday selling season.
Commodities were mostly higher today, with precious metals, copper and crude trading higher. Natural gas and grains were down on the day. Gold traded higher by roughly 0.40% and silver was up sharply with a gain of 1.5%. Crude rose by 1.5% and natural gas was off sharply, 3.9%, on worse than expected storage numbers.
Pending homes sales figures for October were much better than expected. Pending homes sales rose 5.2% for October. The index is at its highest levels since 2007.
Large cap technology stocks performed well today. Apple rose 1%. Speculation about the iPhone 5 being offered in China soon was the catalyst for the move higher. Research in Motion moved sharply higher after Goldman Sachs upgraded the shares to a buy. The special dividend craze moved to the tech sector after the close. Tellabs, which closed at $2.95 a share, announced a special dividend of $1.00 after the close.
The homebuilding/building products area of the market responded favorably to the pending homes sales data. The building products companies were up much more than the homebuilders. The products companies will receive an added boost in spending for their products due to the impact of the east coast storms.
Transports were up roughly 1% on the day led by the airlines and parcel delivery companies. All data points to heavy shipments of goods through increased online shopping this holiday season.
Source: PFS Group
