The small-cap Russell 2000 index has hit another closing record high today — the 13th time this has occurred this year. Otherwise, it was sort of a reversal of yesterday’s close, with the S&P 500 up slightly and the Dow more solidly in the green, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.3% on the day. Energy and Financials led; Energy had been one of the underperforming industries a day ago.
A report on New Home Sales for November was released earlier today, posting a disappointing 841K from an expected the 1.0 million expected. This marks an 11% drop for the month (though still +20% year over year), and is the third straight month of lower new home sales. Short supply in housing and historically low mortgage rates have put this industry on the front burner, but homebuilders continue to struggle keeping supply in pace with demand. A month ago, 945K new homes were sold for the month.
Consumer Sentiment for December came in at 80.7, slightly lower than the 81.0 analysts were looking for, and 70 basis points below the November read of 81.4. This is only a partial look at this year’s all-important holiday shopping season. We’ll get a more well-rounded view next month and the month after, when retailers bring forth their quarterly earnings results.
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) MRNA has issued a statement on its Emergency Use Application (EUA)-approved Covid-19 vaccine, and how it’s projected to perform on the variant strain of the coronavirus discovered in the south of England. The company said that because the vaccine covers the entire spike protein — the region of the mutation in the new strain — that its efficacy should not be negatively affected. This is similar to the statement released on the Pfizer PFE-BioNTech BNTX Covid-19 vaccine previously.
Tomorrow is only a half-day for the markets. Volumes tend to slow right before a big holiday, as well. This column will update ahead of the opening bell, but will not return until Monday of next week.
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