With President Donald Trump signing the coronavirus stimulus/relief and fiscal 2021 government spending bill, financial markets can go back to their favorite holiday week activity–using the opportunity afforded by shrunken volumes to push up stocks.
As of the close on December 28 in New York, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 0.87% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.68%. The NASDAQ Composite was higher by 0.74% and the NASDAQ 100 had gained 1.01%. The Russell 2000 small cap index was a laggard with a 0.38% loss. The iShares MSCI Â Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) also lagged on continued Alibaba (BABA) turmoil in China with a gain of just 0.28%%.
I can’t yet tell from just today’s action what sort of stocks will do best in the 2020 Santa rally. Traditionally this has been a time when out of favor industrials and raw materials stocks have outperformed. There’s some evidence of that today with a 1.61% gain in copper miner First Quantum Minerals (FQVLF), for example.
But in some years the winners in this period have been the stocks that went into the holiday week with the most momentum. If the morning–as of 11:30–that trend was reflected in the 1.13% gain by battery startup QuantumSpace (QS), but other SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) have posted losses or only modest gains. Switchback Energy (SBE) was down 2.49%, for example.
As the day went on, however, the market began to show a decided preference for the biggies in the tech sector. Apple (AAPL) closed up 3.58%, Amazon (AMZN) ahead 3.51%, Facebook (FB) added 3.59%, and Alphabet (GOOG) gained 2.14%.
Too soon to tell decisively, where the very short term action will be, in my opinion. But the day’s action is suggestive of where we can look for gains.
