Market indexes both opened and closed in the red this Monday trading day, pulling higher from the lows reached during today’s pre-market. Investors are apparently still trying to gauge the myriad trajectories of a reopening economy, raging Covid-19 pandemic, transition of presidential administrations and extremist activity on the fringes of political discourse.
The Dow closed -90 points or -0.3% (it had been -300 points an hour before the opening bell), the Nasdaq -165 points or -1.25%, the S&P 500 -25 points, -0.66% with the small-cap Russell 2000 nearest to breakeven, -0.03%.
It’s the first down day in the last three for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, and the first in the last five for the S&P 500. So while there remains overall positive sentiment in economic growth for 2021 (though perhaps starting later than originally hoped), market participants don’t seem convinced enough to let it ride on the highs — especially considering we’re still trading at around all-time record levels. So booking gains here and there looks to be the move of the day.
So while Energy, Healthcare and Financials moved higher today, these were offset by Consumer Discretionary, Real Estate and Communication Services. Tomorrow could well be the same thing, but in reverse.
We’re still relatively light in economic news items with which to bring new winds to sentiment; much this week will be focused on the “beginning” of Q4 Earnings Season (although more than a dozen companies have already reported quarterly numbers), including Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) DAL Thursday morning, and Big Banks like JPMorgan JPM, Citigroup C and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) WFC reporting Friday.
Otherwise, tomorrow also brings us the NFIB small-business index, with a new Consumer Price Index (CPI) out on Wednesday. Both prints will be from December. Wednesday afternoon also has a new Beige Book and December Federal Deficit numbers. But don’t look for any of this to influence much trading activity — leave this to the hourly updates coming out of Washington DC and Covid-19 infection/vaccination rates.
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