Markets Can't Sustain Record Highs; 737 MAX Flies Without Incident

After closing Monday afternoon at fresh all-time highs, then entering Tuesday trading at even fresher highs, market indexes were unable to sustain them by the close of the day. It’s tough to suggest there may be something amiss in market sentiment — we are talking about historic record highs, after all — but there really isn’t much. Will the American citizenry receive $600 stimulus checks or $2000 checks? Hard to see disappointment either way.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 dropped 0.22% on the day, and the Nasdaq dipped 0.38%. The small-cap Russell 2000 outpaced its larger brethren’s volatility once again, though not to the upside: it was down another 1.85% today. Markets had set new intra-day highs before gliding down into the red.

Apparently, the Covid vaccine rollout is on a much slower pace of immunizing Americans than analysts were expecting; while more than 11 million vaccine doses have been delivered, only 2.1 million people had received their first shot. This could amount to a drag on the overall economic recovery, pushing back the timeline when we can safely reopen the country in full.

American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) AAL put its first commercial 737 MAX in the air this morning in 20 months: the Miami-to-New York flight was without incident, according to the many transportation reporters on board the half-full airplane. Two crashes of the jet grounded the model until proper adjustments could be made. American has 34 of these planes it its fleet; once pandemic conditions are in the rearview mirror, flight demand will pick up — and apparently the 737 MAX is ready. Boeing BA, the jet’s manufacturer, was up marginally on the day.

Advance Trade, Chicago PMI and Pending Home Sales are all on the docket for Wednesday morning, though none is particularly expected to have much influence on market direction. Thursday morning, New Year’s Eve, will bring us new jobless claims. These gave us a glimmer of hope last week after more than a month of much higher jobless claims totals. Friday is New Year’s Day, and both the stock market and the Ahead of Wall Street column will be enjoying the day off.

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