What the Market Wants: A Week of Murk and Fog
Last week brought us murk and fog in an otherwise bright New Year. All style/caps were down for the week, though not drastically. The worst was Small-cap Growth (- 1.12%); the best was Large-cap Growth (-0.6%); and the rest crowded between these uninspiring returns. But given the tremendous amount of cash on the sidelines, the market seems unlikely to turn disastrous.
It could have been worse. Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Monsanto (NYSE: MON) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) disappointed badly early in the week, although Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) brought in pleasing numbers later in the week. Government statistics were for the most part dismal — worse-than-expected numbers for trade balance (-36.4 B), initial job claims (+11,000 to 444,000) and retail sales (-0.3%). Even consumer sentiment was poor (flat, actually, at 72.8 vs. December’s final 72.5), probably a reflection of the other disappointing statistics. Only the consumer price index (CPI) was encouraging, increasing just 0.1% in December, after a 0.4% rise in November. Although Europe is beginning to struggle with inflation, the U.S. isn’t having that problem yet. Read more…
