Pre-Holiday Market Malaise

[Excerpted from Bill Cara's Daily Report]

Drifting lower all day long, the equity markets posted their fifth consecutive losing session, albeit on extremely low turnover. Crude oil continued to fall, dropping to a new low four and a half year low, but oil stocks were mixed, and despite a decline in precious metals, gold mining stocks were firm, finishing near the highs of the day.

The DJIA (-100.28 -1.18%), S&P 500 (-8.47 -0.97% to 863.16) and NASDAQ Composite (-10.91 -0.71% to 1521.54) were weak.

The Toronto Composite index recovered from Monday’s thrashing (+62.38 +0.76% to 8311.91), and the Venture Board was up again (+6.29 +0.91% to 698.31).

Earlier Wednesday, the international markets were mostly down, with Asia-Pacific markets (ex-Australia, which lifted) all down, later followed by further weakness in Europe: Australia (+1.35% to 3515.0), Japan (-2.37% to 8517.1, after being closed the prior day), Hong Kong (-0.26% to 14184.1), Shanghai (-1.76% to 1863.8) and India (-1.22% to 9568.7).

In a pre-Christmas shortened session, the European bourses were weaker at 6am ET: the French CAC, German DAX and UK FTSE were -0.71%; -0.21%; and -0.97%, respectively.

Tuesday in NY, the Energy sector (XLE +0.2%) was the leader even though Crude Oil prices sank -$0.39/bbl in the futures market to close at 39.51. There was further weakness this morning.

The worst hit sector in NY yesterday was the Financials (XLF -2.4%).

There was very low volume with thin trading in almost all Cara 100 company stocks.

The stocks of the Cara 100 that lifted were led by MBT +6.5%, VIP +5.0%, and TGP +4.8%. The biggest losers in the Cara 100 were BC -10.1%, KB -6.9%, IBN -6.5%, and SNDK -6.3%.

The US long bond ($USB) apparently gained +0.22% to 141.00 if my data source is accurate. All the yields, however, also lifted. The T-Bill yield stayed at 0.005%.

Gold and silver precious metal prices were weaker yesterday, dropping for 60-90 minutes just before noon. The platinum and palladium remained unchanged.

There was a modestly weaker Euro (-0.15% to 139.21). The $USD lifted (+0.14% to 81.24). The Yen, and Pound closed lower (-0.75% to 109.94 and -0.61% to 147.30, respectively), but the Loonie gained (+0.20% to 82.01.

This morning at 6:00am ET, the Euro was at 139.59, almost exactly where it was yesterday morning.

Except for the modest 60-90 minute pull-back in gold and silver, precious metal prices have not moved much compared to this time yesterday (in brackets): gold at 836.3 (844.20), palladium at 170 (171), platinum at (850) 850, and silver at 10.36 (10.74). Silver was 10.81 yesterday at 6:00am ET.

The Euro is up to 139.75 and the $USD down to 81.875 in the futures market.

US equity futures are indicating a modestly stronger open, but, really, most traders have departed for the holiday break.

Comments

[Anthony Alfidi:]

I'd love to know what those traders who left early were thinking. Maybe they looked at their bonus schedules for Q408 and figured it wasn't worth it to try to move the market in the light volumes of pre-holiday trading.

2008 Dec 24 04:57 PM