December Non-Manufacturing ISM = 53

The stock market is down again today. This could be the first time since 2005 that the S&P 500 has started the year with three straight losses. Am I worried? Not at all.

Medtronic ($MDT) is leading our Buy List today. The shares are currently up over 1.2%. Their CEO is due to speak at a healthcare conference today.

Some downgrades today are hurting a few Buy List stocks.

eBay ($EBAY), for example, is getting hit this morning for a 3% loss. The shares were downgraded at Morgan Stanley from Overweight to Equal Weight. The earnings report will come out in two weeks.

AFLAC ($AFL) is also down today. Credit Suisse downgraded AFL from Neutral from Outperform. But they raised their price target from $66 to $67 per share.

A number of analysts on Wall Street have been raising their forecasts for Q4 GDP growth. We won’t get the report until the end of the month. While I don’t place a great deal of faith in forecasts from the analyst community, it does reflect a growing sense of optimism from investors.

The ISM reported that its non-manufacturing index fell to 53 in December. The consensus on Wall Street was for 54.7.

fredgraph01062014

Posted by on January 6th, 2014 at 11:37 am


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