Wall Street contrasted, with the S&P 500 index which tests a new record and the Nasdaq Composite which, after the strong buy on the eve, retraces. The Dow Jones index rose 0.80% to 36,884 points; the S&P 500 advanced 0.31% to 4,811.92, while the Nasdaq lost 0.47% to 15,759 points.
Today, stocks of companies that manage cruise travel, such as Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise, and stocks of airlines, such as American and United Airlines, are advancing. “We believe there is further upside for equities, despite the strong run we have seen to date – wrote JP Morgan equities strategists led by Mislav Matejka – The new variant is proving weaker of the others”.
Therefore, the news of the new Covid infections in the States which, on a daily basis, reached more than 1 million does not have a particularly depressing effect. “We continue to see bullish earnings, and believe the consensus projections for 2022 will prove too low again,” continued JP Morgan analysts.
Meanwhile, the announcement by the CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US federal agency belonging to the Department of Health – has reduced the waiting period for the Pfizer vaccine booster from one month to five months. Those who have been vaccinated with Moderna have to wait another six months before taking the third dose, while those who have been injected with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (thus receiving only one dose) the waiting period is at least two months.
JP Morgan’s optimism on Wall Street is not shared by Byron R. Wien and Joe Zidle, respectively vice president and chief investment strategist of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions Group division. In the list of top 10 surprises for the 2022 markets, Wien and Zidle also talked about the US stock exchange, writing that, in their opinion, “the S&P 500 index will not rise in 2022, as the strength of corporate America’s earnings will it will collide with the rise in interest rates (by the Fed) “. Again: “Value stocks will do better than growth stocks” and “volatility will continue to be high, in view of an approaching correction that will be at, but not more than, -20%.”
After the rally on the eve of more than + 13%, due to data on better-than-expected car sequences, relating to the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2021, the Tesla stock is about to turn around.
The protagonist of the last few hours is above all Apple, which in the first session of the new year was confirmed as the first company in the world to reach – and exceed – $ 3 trillion in market capitalization, thanks to two winning cards: the boom in buyback operations. and the timeless success of its iPhones.
The stock climbed to $ 182.86 yesterday, surpassing the $ 3 trillion market cap. At the end of the session, the prices slowed down with a rise equal to + 2.5% to $ 182.01: a value that however allowed the giant led by Tim Cook to oscillate around the coveted threshold just grabbed. The title is flat at the moment.
“The optimism about global economic growth and earnings momentum, which revived in mid-December, continued to grow on the first trading day of the year,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group, according to as reported by Cnbc, commenting on the performance of the US stock market yesterday – Those stocks most linked to economic growth did better (in yesterday’s session), also accompanied by the technology and communications sectors “.
Confident in the positive continuation of the trend of US equities Ryan Detrick of LPL Financial who, also on CNBC, commented that “the well-known Santa Claus rally ends on Tuesday (today). The good news is that it looks like these seven bullish days. (of the first trading week of the year) the shares will continue to rise. And it is when the stock goes down in these first days that we have to worry: therefore, in this situation, there is one less worry “.
In summary, as the saying goes, good morning starts in the morning, a good year for Wall Street would start from the first week of trading.
History itself confirms that the first days of January are full of buy: in 11 of the previous 13 years, the S&P 500 actually marked a positive trend in the first week of trading of the new year, collecting on average a gain of 1.6%.
2021 was a positive year for the US stock exchange, in particular for the S&P 500 index, which jumped on an annual basis by 26.89%, up for the third consecutive year. Third consecutive year of earnings also for the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq, which gained 18.73% and 21.39% respectively. The S&P 500 struck record highs 70 times, the second highest after 77 closes at record highs in 1995.
The best performances were reported by the stocks of companies active in the real estate and energy markets, with the related sub-indices flown by more than 40%. Financials and hi-tech stocks grossed gains of over 30%.
Investors are eagerly awaiting the publication of the US employment report, which will take place on Friday 7 January, at 2.30 pm Italian time: Bloomberg’s consensus expects an increase in new employees (by 400,000 units) and a drop in the unemployment rate for the month of December. The first indications on the US labor market will arrive tomorrow with the publication of the ADP survey: also tomorrow, Wednesday 5 January, the minutes of the December meeting of the Fed will be released.
Attention also to the US government bond market, where the rise in interest rates supported bank bonds yesterday. The prospects of a more hawkish Fed ready to raise fed funds rates up to three times in 2022, yesterday led US two-year bond rates to jump to 0.796%, to the highest values since March 2020, or from when the alarm of the Covid-19 pandemic rang out all over the world. The leap is remarkable, if we consider that the low of 2021 was reached around 0.105%.
Rates continue to rise, with 10-year rates rising to 1.663% and 30-year rates hovering above the 2% threshold.