Stock Market News for December 27, 2013 - Market News
27 Diciembre 2013 - 9:06AM
Zacks
Encouraging holiday season sales numbers and
labor data helped the Dow and S&P 500 continue their record run
on Thursday. Initial claims dropped for the week ending Dec 21 and
holidays sales were reported to have improved between Nov 1 and Dec
24 period. Positive holiday sales numbers lifted the retail sector
into the green and was among the major gainers.
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read today’s Ahead of Wall Street article
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8% to end at a record
high of 16,479.88. The Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) too
notched up a record high of 1,842.02, up 0.5%. The tech-laden
Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3% to close yesterday’s trading
session at 4,167.18. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index dropped
1.2% to 12.33. As expected volumes remained low at 3.3 billion
shares being traded on the exchanges, as against monthly average so
far of 6.2 billion. The advancers outpaced the decliners as for 51%
stocks that gained on NYSE, 46% ended in the red.
Boxing Day had enough encouragement for the traders as holiday
sales were reported to be positive. According to MasterCard
Advisors SpendingPulse, sales during Nov 1 to Dec 24 improved 2.3%
year on year. The rate of increase was a significant jump from 0.7%
increase reported last year. In fact, this year’s sales increase is
the best in three years.
SpendingPulse records the level of purchases of jewelry, luxury and
home furniture & furnishing, apparel, and electronics segments
in the holiday period. The positive data boosted the retail stocks
and the Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY) gained 0.7%. Among the
retail stocks, J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), Macy's, Inc.
(NYSE:M), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH),
Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
(NYSE:WMT) gained 2.5%, 0.2%, 1.3%, 0.3%, 1% and 0.5%,
respectively.
The positive sales numbers by MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse
comes as a breather after the National Retail Federation (NRF) had
reported in a survey from Prosper Insights & Analytics that
Thanksgiving weekend sales had decline. According to the report,
sales during the period declined 2.7% to $57.4 billion from $59.1
billion in the year-ago period.
Aditionally, initials claims data was a big boost for investor
sentiment. The U.S. Department of Labor noted that seasonally
adjusted initial claims dropped 42,000 to 338,000 in the week
ending Dec 21. The 4-week moving average increased 4,250 from the
prior week to 348,000.
These reports were enough for the benchmarks to extend their record
run. The Dow is having its longest winning streak since March and
the record finish yesterday marked its sixth consecutive close at a
record high. In fact, the Dow has recorded new highs 50 times this
year out of 249 sessions. The S&P 500 too had its share of
laurels, recording new highs 44 times this year.
The positive numbers yesterday follow a host of encouraging
economic reports released on Tuesday. The U.S. Census Bureau had
noted that new orders for manufactured durable goods jumped 3.5% in
November to $241.6 billion. The jump comfortably outperformed the
consensus estimate of a 1.9% gain and also rebounded from a 0.7%
decline in October. Moreover, core capital goods order jumped 4.5%
in November, the highest since January.
According to a joint release by the U.S. Census Bureau and the
Department of Housing and Urban Development noted that sales of new
single-family houses dropped 2.1% from the revised October rate of
474,000 to a seasonally adjusted rate of 464,000 in November.
Nonetheless, the figure was 16.6% above Nov 2012 figures and also
outpaced the consensus estimate of a drop to 440,000. Investor
sentiment was also boosted by the fact that the government revised
last three months’ new home sales figure upwards.
COACH INC (COH): Free Stock Analysis Report
PENNEY (JC) INC (JCP): Free Stock Analysis Report
MACYS INC (M): Free Stock Analysis Report
SEARS HLDG CP (SHLD): Free Stock Analysis Report
TARGET CORP (TGT): Free Stock Analysis Report
WAL-MART STORES (WMT): Free Stock Analysis Report
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