The Second-to-Last Day of the year

It’s been a good year for stocks, but the second-to-last day of 2019 looks to be a soggy one for the market.

The Dow has been down as much as 217 points this morning. Honestly, that’s not much, but it’s a change of pace from the stair-step rally that we’ve enjoyed of late.

The stocks that have done the best recently (like tech) are down the most today. To be technical, this is what they call a counter-trend day.The S&P 500 has been up for five weeks in a row. There’s a chance (a distant one) of the index having its best year since 1997. We’ll probably fall just short of that.

Historically, the Santa Claus Rally is a real thing. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has gained 1.3% during the final five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of the new year. Let’s hope Santa delivers this year.

This morning we learned that pending home sales rose 1.2% last month. In the last year, pending sales are up 7.4%. That’s a good report.

Posted by on December 30th, 2019 at 12:22 pm


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