Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 13104.14 +166.03 +1.28% S&P 500 1426.20 +23.77 +1.69% Nasdaq Comp. 3019.51 +59.20 +2.00% Russell 2000 849.35 +17.25 +2.07%

NYSE Comp. 8443.68 +127.51 +1.53% Nasdaq 100 2660.93 +54.57 +2.09% Dow Transports 5306.77 +85.79 +1.64% Dow Utilities 453.09 +6.39 +1.43%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive with volume better. Advances/declines were 6 to 1 on the NYSE and 4 to 1 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 19 to 1 on the NYSE and 11 to 1 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 117/24 on the NYSE and 74/38 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Metals (+3.76%), Gold/Silver (+3.10%), Homebuilders (+2.90%), Comp. Hardware (+2.60%), Oil Services (+2.59%), Retailers (+2.43%), Commodities (+2.30%), Comp. Tech (+2.18%)
Laggards — Software (+0.93%), Drugs (+0.99%), REITs (+1.16%), Telecoms (+1.21%), Health Care Products (+1.31%), Banks (+1.36%), Broker Dealers (+1.40%), Utilities (+1.43%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.10%,  2 Year: 0.24%,  5 Year: 0.72%,  10 Year: 1.76%,  30 Year: 2.95%

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $91.80/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.81/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.35/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.762

Precious Metals — Gold: $1673.10/ounce,  Silver: $30.31/ounce,  Platinum: $1537.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
So, they ramped the market on the last day of the year on talk of a ‘cliff’ deal. Big shocker there.

Government Power

“The bitter wastes of politicized America”

The expansion of government replaces competition with coercion.  Free people lack coercive power, so they must compete with each other for business opportunities.  Customers must be persuaded.  Employees must be attracted.  It’s messy sometimes, and the process must be policed for theft and fraud, but it’s generally constructive.

Government power replaces all that with a simple, brutal, zero-sum equation: what you are given must be taken from someone else.  The regulatory process is corrupted by both ideology and special interests.  Even when it avoids outright corruption, the process is expensive, because it’s not constructive the way private competition is.  Wealth and value are lost through forced redistribution.  It’s a smaller, poorer world, in which political influence becomes valuable currency.  Your fellow citizens are not your competitors – they are your enemies.  They become selfish plutocrats or lazy parasites.   Their defeat becomes an occasion for riotous celebration.

Link from Instapundit.

What’s Hot, What’s Not

• Browse through our collection of group charts here: set #1 — set #2 — set #3 — set #4 or…
• For a more detailed breakdown of group movement over various time periods, try the Industry Group Tracker at WSJ Online, the industry group tools at Finviz.com, or the list of Morningstar industry groups at FreeStockCharts.com.

 

Best Performing Industries
Last Week	Last 4 Weeks	Last 8 Weeks	Year To Date
Gold & Silver ($XAU) +0.2%	Steel ($DJUSST) +7.1%	Networking ($NWX) +13.1%	Housing ($HGX) +62.7%
Brokers ($XBD) -0.1%	Disk Drives ($DDX) +6.9%	Airlines ($XAL) +10.7%	Biotech ($BTK) +39.0%
Chemicals ($DJUSCH) -0.8%	Brokers +6.4%	Brokers +8.2%	Airlines +34.2%
Insurance ($INSR) -0.8%	Airlines +6.4%	Paper ($DJUSPP) +7.9%	Hospitals ($RXH) +31.5%
REITs ($DJR) -0.9%	Networking +5.4%	Comp. Hardware ($HWI) +7.4%	Banks ($BKX) +28.5%

 

 

Worst Performing Industries
Last Week	Last 4 Weeks	Last 8 Weeks	Year To Date
Disk Drives -3.7%	Gold & Silver -5.6%	Gold & Silver -10.3%	Gold & Silver -11.1%
Natural Gas ($XNG) -3.3%	Retail (XRT) -3.7%	Utilities ($UTY) -5.3%	Metals & Mining (XME) -11.0%
Comp. Hardware -2.9%	Comp. Tech. ($XCI) -2.5%	Natural Gas -3.3%	Steel -10.6%
Oil Services ($OSX) -2.9%	Telecom ($XTC) -1.9%	Telecom -3.2%	Utilities -6.1%
Oil ($XOI) -2.9%	Oil Services -1.8%	Comp. Tech. -3.1%	Disk Drives -4.3%

Weekend Sector Scan

The sector SPDRs have been slipping along with the rest of the market:

 

 

The numbers as we wind down the year, and go on a ‘cliff’ diving adventure:

 

Sector	Symbol	8 Week % Chg.	4 Week % Chg.	1 Week % Chg.	YTD % Chg.
Basic Materials	XLB	+2.1	+0.2	-0.5	+9.9
Financials	XLF	+1.0	+2.5	-1.6	+24.2
Industrials	XLI	+0.7	-0.2	-2.3	+9.8
Consumer Discretionary	XLY	-0.1	-2.1	-1.6	+19.2
Health Care	XLV	-1.6	-1.9	-1.9	+13.8
Technology	XLK	-1.9	-2.6	-2.1	+11.4
Energy	XLE	-2.0	-2.0	-3.3	+0.8
Consumer Staples	XLP	-2.1	-4.2	-2.0	+6.1
Utilities	XLU	-5.0	-2.4	-2.4	-4.2

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 12938.11 -158.20 -1.21% S&P 500 1402.43 -15.67 -1.10% Nasdaq Comp. 2960.31 -25.60 -0.86% Russell 2000 832.10 -5.30 -0.63%

NYSE Comp. 8316.16 -83.67 -1.00% Nasdaq 100 2606.36 -26.58 -1.01% Dow Transports 5220.98 -44.72 -0.85% Dow Utilities 446.70 -4.28 -0.95%

View Major Index charts

Internals were negative, with volume still very light. Advances/declines were 5 to 11 on the NYSE and 1 to 2 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 1 to 5 on the NYSE and 1 to 4 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 39/28 on the NYSE and 25/33 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Broker Dealers (-0.13%), Insurance (-0.38%), Homebuilders (-0.46%), Retailers (-0.52%), Software (-0.57%), Airlines (-0.64%), Banks (-0.71%), Semis (-0.71%)
Laggards — Disk Drives (-2.06%), Oil (-1.81%), Comp. Hardware (-1.78%), Paper (-1.68%), HMOs (-1.50%), Metals (-1.45%), Network (-1.39%), Commodities (-1.39%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.08%,  2 Year: 0.24%,  5 Year: 0.71%,  10 Year: 1.70%,  30 Year: 2.87%

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $91.04/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.81/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.47/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.679

Precious Metals — Gold: $1656.90/ounce,  Silver: $30.05/ounce,  Platinum: $1520.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
“Oooohhh nooooo, it’s a cliffhanger!” This is what happens when news pushes the market around during a holiday week, when there’s little to no volume and/or liquidity available.

you can't just buy/sell 2000 eminis with the depth this low. Market spasms result. $ES_F $SPY #DidYouGetTheMemo

— Eric Scott Hunsader (@nanexllc) December 28, 2012

And Sunday night, they’ll make some sort of ‘cliff’ pronouncement — meaningful or not — and the futures will jump 300 points…

“This Weekend Requires Ample Drinking”

Have a good one.

It’s Simple

From one of the straightest shooters out there, Tim Knight:

This whole fiscal cliff thing is a joke. Why? Uhh, simple:

(a) The United States is hopelessly in debt;

(b) It can only continue funding its bloated, groteseque bureaucracy with trillions more of unpayable debt until the end of time;

(c) Social Security and Medicare are both insolvent and will eventually be brought to ruin;

(d) Our politicians lack the will to do what needs to be done to wrench the country off its course of destruction

We could really use a dictator right about now, but those don’t tend to work out really well in the end either, do they?

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 13096.31 -18.28 -0.14% S&P 500 1418.09 -1.74 -0.12% Nasdaq Comp. 2985.91 -4.25 -0.14% Russell 2000 837.40 -1.49 -0.18%

NYSE Comp. 8399.83 +4.34 +0.05% Nasdaq 100 2632.94 -4.24 -0.16% Dow Transports 5265.70 -22.03 -0.42% Dow Utilities 450.98 -1.04 -0.23%

View Major Index charts

Despite the late bounce, internals were negative, with volume better, but still very light. Advances/declines were about 4 to 5 on both exchanges, with up/down volume about 4 to 7 on each. New highs/lows were 50/35 on the NYSE and 28/28 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Gold/Silver (+0.53%), REITs (+0.26%), Broker Dealers (+0.17%), Oil (+0.16%), Retailers (+0.16%), Defense (+0.07%), Homebuilders (+0.01%), Telecoms (-0.01%)
Laggards — Metals (-0.87%), Network (-0.59%), Airlines (-0.50%), Comp. Hardware (-0.46%), Disk Drives (-0.40%), Banks (-0.39%), Semis (-0.38%), Chemicals (-0.38%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.10%,  2 Year: 0.25%,  5 Year: 0.73%,  10 Year: 1.73%,  30 Year: 2.90%

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $90.97/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.83/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.36/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.603

Precious Metals — Gold: $1663.80/ounce,  Silver: $30.18/ounce,  Platinum: $1531.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Oh, the fun and frolic as more ‘cliff news’ flies in thin holiday trading…

What To Do?

Scott Bleier:

So what is an investor supposed to do? Say fuck it, buy everything and throw caution to the wind because the market won’t go down? Take it all, buy gold & silver coins and be a survivalist? Cower in the corner while watching cable news? Do absolutely nothing? Well, it depends on your circumstances. In reality, just being aware of reality is enough to keep you cautious and treading lightly. In my mind, there are few ideas that could be called ”cheap”. There is literally nowhere liquid to go with your money as bonds are too expensive, commodities are too expensive, most stocks are too expensive and real estate is an illiquid falsehood with the government the only marketmaker.

—

This is my sole prediction for 2013; an epic slow-motion train wreck filled with greenbacks. And no amount of innovation, financial or otherwise, can change the great reset that will eventually come. We are Japan and there is only one difference between us and them; their equity market has been quartered and ours is near all time highs.

What’s Next?

BMB reader Randal shares some of his thoughts: “Will The US Collapse or Decay?”

There is no shortage of doomsday type discussions involving various scenarios with the US economy collapsing in ruin, decay and chaos. Just hit YouTube and search on “dollar crash” or “us collapse”, and you will find plenty to keep you busy. Some of those discussions you find will involve well known economists, as well as average folks sharing their thoughts (and predictions). Along with the search results you find, will likely be episodes of “Doomsday Preppers” which has been airing on the National Geographic channel, along with others who call themselves “preppers”. One thing is certain, at least to me, is that not just the US, but the entire global economy is in “uncharted waters”. So what is coming next?

I wish I knew…

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 13114.59 -24.49 -0.19% S&P 500 1419.83 -6.83 -0.48% Nasdaq Comp. 2990.16 -22.44 -0.74% Russell 2000 838.89 -5.85 -0.69%

NYSE Comp. 8395.49 -25.06 -0.30% Nasdaq 100 2637.18 -20.87 -0.79% Dow Transports 5287.73 -32.02 -0.60% Dow Utilities 452.02 -3.93 -0.86%

View Major Index charts

Internals were negative on light holiday volume. Advances/declines were about 7 to 12 on both exchanges, with up/down volume just below flat on the NYSE and 11 to 21 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 67/20 on the NYSE and 33/21 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Metals (+1.09%), Paper (+0.48%), Gold/Silver (+0.45%), Chemicals (+0.31%), Broker Dealers (+0.26%), Banks (+0.16%), HMOs (+0.06%), Commodities (-0.06%)
Laggards — Retailers (-1.74%), Biotechs (-1.09%), Homebuilders (-1.03%), Disk Drives (-0.92%), Hospitals (-0.88%), Utilities (-0.87%), Defense (-0.82%), Semis (-0.81%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.10%,  2 Year: 0.26%,  5 Year: 0.76%,  10 Year: 1.75%,  30 Year: 2.92%

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $90.97/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.81/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.37/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.583

Precious Metals — Gold: $1659.80/ounce,  Silver: $29.99/ounce,  Platinum: $1533.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Holiday week – is anyone paying any attention?