Coffee With Greta: Will Santa Visit Wall Street?
DJIA Futures: +162 (+0.5%)
SPX Futures: +17 (+0.5%)
NASDAQ Futures: +59 (+0.5%)
Good morning friends!
Futures are higher as cooling inflation data props up stocks.
Let’s get right to it!
Traders Hope For Santa Rally
Traders are hoping Santa will pay a visit to Wall Street this weekend, gifting them an end-of-year rally.
But the major indexes are still on track for large monthly losses.
For December, the Dow Jones is down 4.5%, the S&P 500 has lost more than 6%, and the Nasdaq is down 8.7%.
All three would be the largest monthly declines since September and stocks are also on pace for their worst year since 2008.
Fed’s Fave Inflation Gauge Cools
The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge continued to cool in November.
The PCE price index rose 0.1% monthly and 5.5% year over year.
That was down from the 6.1% annual increase in October.
The core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% monthly and 4.7% annually.
That was down from 5% in October but slightly higher than economists’ expectations for 4.6%.
Durable Goods Orders Tumble
U.S. durable goods orders tumbled more than expected in November as the manufacturing sector slows.
The Commerce Department reported orders dropped 2.1% vs expectations for a 1.1% decline.
Core durable goods orders rose 0.2% vs 0.1% expected while orders excluding defense tumbled 2.6%.
Non-defense orders, excluding aircraft, rose 0.2% and transportation equipment orders plunged 6.3%.
Shipments of durable goods rose 0.2%.
Durable goods refers to products manufactured to last three years or more.
Musk Vows Not To Sell More $TSLA
Tesla (TSLA) shares are up 1.2% ahead of the open after CEO Elon Musk vowed to pause his sales of the stock.
During a Twitter Spaces event Thursday, Musk said he would not sell any Tesla stock for a minimum of 18 to 24 months.
Since November 2021, he has sold more than $39 billion worth of the stock.
Musk said, “You certainly have my commitment I won’t sell stock until, I don’t know, probably two years from now. Definitely not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year thereafter.”
In Case You Missed It
- The Conference Board’s leading economic indicators index dropped 1% in November. That was worse than expectations for a 0.5% decline and marked the ninth straight monthly drop. Higher jobless claims, slowing home sales, and a manufacturing slowdown contributed to the latest decline. The Conference Board’s senior director of economic research said, “We project a U.S. recession is likely to start around the beginning of 2023 and last through mid-year.”