Morning Preview: December 27, 2023

Early Look

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Futures

Up/Down

%

Last

Dow

-7.00

0.02%

37,887,

S&P 500

-1.25

0.02%

4,824

Nasdaq

0.50

0.01%

17,084

 

 

S&P futures (Spuz) down -1.50 at 4,823.50 (trades in less than 10-point range (4,830 high and 4,821.75 low) as the light volume, light news trading week rolls on. Many investors, traders, and Wall Street players seem to be taking the week off given the Christmas holiday, leading to narrow trading ranges/low volumes the first two days this week. Wall Street analyst research was light yesterday and almost non-existent again today. U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday, building on a streak of eight straight weekly gains as the final, holiday-shortened week of 2023 got under way. Last week, stocks finished mostly higher, with the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq each scoring an eighth straight weekly gain. The S&P 500 finished 0.9% away from its record close of 4,796.56, set on Jan. 3, 2022. Stock gains were broad based yet again on Tuesday, with the semiconductor index (SOX) settling at new highs above 4,200 and Smallcap Russell 2000 outperforming, rising more than 1%. Ten-year Treasury yields trade near five-month lows around 3.86% amid hopes inflation continues to ease, though today marks another light economic data day. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index surged 375 points to 33,681, the Shanghai Index rose 15 points to 2,914, and the Hang Seng Index jumped 284 points to 16,624. In Europe, the German DAX is higher by 37 points to 16,743, while the FTSE 100 is up over 40 points to 7,740.

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

  • The S&P 500 Index gained 20.12 points, or 0.42%, to 4,774.75.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 159.36 points, or 0.43%, to 37,545.33.
  • The Nasdaq Composite jumped 81.60 points, or 0.54%, to 15,074.57.
  • The Russell 2000 Index advanced 25.23 points, or 1.24% to 2,059.19.

Economic Calendar for Today

  • 7:00 AM ET                  MBA Mortgage Applications Data
  • 10:00 AM ET                Richmond Fed manufacturing for December
  • 1:00 PM ET                   U.S. Treasury to sell $55B in 5-year notes.
  • 4:30 PM ET                   API Weekly Inventory Data

 

 

Macro

Up/Down

Last

Nymex

-0.59

74.98

Brent

-0.54

80.53

Gold

9.10

2,078.90

EUR/USD

0.001

1.105

JPY/USD

0.21

142.60

10-Year Note

-0.015

3.871%

 

World News

  • Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said he was in no rush to unwind ultra-loose monetary policy as the risk of inflation running well above 2% and accelerating was small, public broadcaster NHK reported. There was a chance the BOJ could gain "quite a lot of information" from the bank’s regional branch managers’ meeting in mid-January, Ueda was quoted as saying, when asked about the chance of a policy change in January. "For now, I don’t think the chance of this happening is large though," Ueda said in an interview conducted on Tuesday – Reuters.
  • This year’s hottest options trade is catching on with Wall Street’s nerd contingent. Big banks that develop systematic equity products for clients have jumped on the bandwagon of derivative contracts that have zero days to expiration, or 0DTE. Desks responsible for so-called “quantitative investment strategies,” or QIS, have either built new trades around these flashy options or used them as an alternative in existing strategies. http://tinyurl.com/mr2xn8c2

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

  • Life Time Group Holdings, Inc. (LTH) agreed with Robert Houghton, the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, that Mr. Houghton will resign from his position as Chief Financial Officer effective as of December 31, 2023 and will cease his service to the Company effective January 5, 2024.
  • Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is preparing to launch an updated version of its popular Model Y SUV at its plant in Shanghai, Bloomberg News reported late Tuesday. According to the report, the revamped Model Y will feature significant interior and exterior changes and is expected to reach mass production as soon as mid-2024.

Energy, Industrials and Materials

  • Posco Holdings’ (PKX) unveiled a joint venture project to produce rare gases for making semiconductors in South Korea.
  • Russia expects Brent prices to average between $80 and $85 a barrel next year amid OPEC+ output cuts, Deputy PM Alexander Novak tells state-runs Rossiya 24 TV channel – Bloomberg.

Financials

  • Bitcoin prices +1.7% back above $43K and boosting crypto stocks early (COIN BTBT).
  • Bit Digital (BTBT) said it plans to double its bitcoin mining operating fleet to about 6.0 ether per second in 2024.

Healthcare

  • Coherus (CHRS) announces FDA approval of Udenyca Onbody™, a novel and proprietary state-of-the-art delivery system for pegfilgrastim-CBQV; commercial availability of Udenyca Onbody is planned for Q1 of 2024.
  • Cytokinetics (CYTK) announced an investor call to discuss headline results for the pivotal Sequoia-HCM trial of aficamten, its experimental heart medicine.

Technology, Media & Telecom

  • The soft-landing scenario that investors see for next year points to further gains in US stocks. But it also dims the prospect of another stretch of wild outperformance for the technology giants that dominated in 2023 – Bloomberg reported. http://tinyurl.com/wt944pnk

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Market commentary provided by Hammerstone Markets, Inc, a firm separate from and not affiliated with Regal Securities. Regal Securities has not participated in the creation of the content, and does not explicitly or implicitly endorse the content.