Dow Industrials snapped a seven-session winning streak
It was mixed finish for stocks on Monday, 29 December 2014. The S&P 500 edged up to another record close on Monday, but the Dow industrials snapped a seven-session winning streak. It was a full day of trading on Monday, yet the stock market acted like it was still on vacation. Volume was light and the major indices held to narrow trading ranges that bracketed the unchanged line for much of the session. The S&P 500 managed to eke out its seventh gain in the last eight sessions. In doing so, it established another record closing high that pulled it ever closer to the 2100 level.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 15.48 points, or 0.1%, to end at 18,038.23. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite inched up by 0.05 point to finish at 4,806.91. The S&P 500 rose by 1.80 points, or 0.1%, to close at 2,090.57, leaving the benchmark up 13.1% for 2014, with two trading sessions left in the year.
Utilities, the best-performing S&P sector this year, showed the biggest gainer among the 10 main sectors on Monday. Within the Dow Jones Industrial Average, IBM and Visa were the two biggest losers while Home Depot and Goldman Sachs were the two biggest gainers.
There was little or no significant economic releases for cues, with investors upbeat over an improving US economy. Nevertheless, trading volumes are expected to remain thin during the week, ahead of the New Year.
Most of today's action happened away from the U.S. stock market. To that end, European bourses had a roller-coaster session, riding a wave of Greek politics that included a third failed vote for the prime minister's preferred presidential candidate. The Greek stock market ended Monday down 3.9%, yet that was a vast improvement over the 10% decline it suffered at one point following the failed vote. The turmoil was attributed to a growing sense of angst that the anti-austerity Syriza party will win the snap elections, cancel the austerity measures implemented as a condition for the country's bailout program, and potentially lead a Greece exit from the eurozone.
Among data due this week are the consumer confidence index for December from the Conference Board, the weekly jobless claims, the National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index for November and the results of the Institute for Supply Management's national and MNI Indicators' regional manufacturing surveys.
The S&P Case-Shiller house price index for October, Markit's final US manufacturing index for December and the Commerce Department's construction spending data for November will also be out during the course of the week.
Bullion prices ended lower at Comex on Monday, 29 December 2014 at Comex. Gold prices pulled back on Monday after some wide swings during Christmas week. Gold prices ended last Friday on a big uptick but still finished down a bit for the holiday-shortened week due to heavy losses in the prior sessions.
Gold for February delivery fell $13.40, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,181.90 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver for March delivery also fell, slipping nearly 37 cents, or 2.3%, to settle at $15.78 an ounce.
Crude prices ended lower at Nymex on Monday, 29 December 2014 at Nymex. Crude-oil futures have now plunged 50% from their 2014 high, as prices swung lower again on Monday. Prices slipped once again on Monday following a higher dollar. The pace of the slide, to the lowest settlement in nearly six years, is the fastest in about 8 years.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February fell $1.12, or 2%, to settle at $53.61 a barrel, after an early rally on reports of a fire affecting oil-storage terminals in Libya collapsed. That's the lowest settlement since May, 2009. Earlier, the February contract traded as high as $55.74, or 1.8% higher than Friday's settlement. Nymex crude lost 4.2% last week, marking a fifth consecutive week of declines. Overall, oil prices have now plunged 50% from their 2014 settlement high, set on June 20.
A total of 538 mln shares changed hands at the NYSE.
There wasn't any economic data out of the U.S. on Monday. Tuesday's lineup will feature the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for October (consensus +4.4%) and the Consumer Confidence report for December (consensus 94.4).
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