Daily Market Reports | Dec 24 2010
By Greg Peel
The Dow rose 14 points or 0.1% while the S&P fell 0.1% to 1256 and the Nasdaq was down 0.1%.
I think there were about nine people trading on the NYSE last night, and even they were distracted. A quick head count gave us Dasher and Dancer and some others. Wall Street is now closed until Monday night at which point we will have yet another ham sandwich and urge on a Santa Rally.
Suffice to say, not a lot of action. There were nevertheless some economic data releases to consider.
US durable goods orders fell 1.3% in November, but take out the lumpy transport (aircraft etc) component and they actually rose 2.4% to mark the best gain since March.
Sales of new homes rose 5.5% to 290,000 in October, which was nice, except that economists had hoped for 300,000.
Personal income rose 0.3% in November compared to a 0.4% expectation; personal consumption rose 0.4% compared to a 0.5% expectation.
The final Michigan Uni fortnightly consumer sentiment survey for the year saw the index rise to 74.2 from 71.6 one month ago – bang on expectation.
The US dollar index has been ticking up ever so quietly higher lately, and so has the Aussie. The dollar index slipped a tad last night to 80.48, but the Aussie Battler slapped on some sunscreen and headed to US$1.0044.
Oil decided that if everyone says it's going to US$100, it might as well. Oil was up US$1.03 to US$91.51/bbl. Other commodities mostly saw profit-taking however, with base metals slightly trimmed in London and gold down US$4.00 to US$1379.60/oz.
The SPI Overnight was down 18 points or 0.4%.
Well that's it from me for the year. I've enjoyed bringing you the Overnight Report in 2010 in what has proven another action-packed twelve months. Thank you very much to those who've provided positive feedback, thank you very much to all our subscribers, and free people out there – God bless you I'm writing for you too.
I'll be taking a break for a bit but the Overnight Report will return on January 17 with the dulcet tones of Rudi Filapek-Vandyck. I'll see you again on January 31st.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Best Wishes.
Greg
[Note: All paying members at FNArena are being reminded they can set an email alert specifically for The Overnight Report. Go to Portfolio and Alerts in the Cockpit and tick the box in front of The Overnight Report. You will receive an email alert every time a new Overnight Report has been published on the website.]
