Daily Markets: Earnings to Pick Up Velocity This Week
Last Friday stocks gave back all their earlier gains to leave the major US equity indices lower on the day. The major indices took a hit on Friday in response to the December Employment Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed nonfarm payrolls rose just 145k in December, well below expectations for 160k with an additional 14k downward revision to the prior two months. Aside from the miss relative to expectations, what we find even more concerning is the retail sector reportedly added 41k new employees for the holiday season, which disappointed outside of online sales. We’ll be looking closely for such a reversal in that category inside the January Employment Report.
For the first full week of trading in 2020, the Nasdaq 100 gained 2%, followed by the Nasdaq Composite’s gain of 1.8% and the S&P 500’s 1% move. Although the major equity indices all closed in the red last Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to briefly make a new intraday high, breaking through 29,000. If the Dow can manage to hold that level today, it will be the third new thousand-level mark since the start of 2019.
From an economic data and earnings report perspective, today is poised to be a quiet one, however, …
Disclosures
- lululemon athletica (LULU), TerraForm Power (TERP) and Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) are constituents in Tematica Research’s Cleaner Living Index.
- Microsoft (MSFT) is a constituent in Tematica Research’s Thematic Dividend All Stars Index.
