November 30 through December 4, 2020
Euro Trader P. M4
Emerging Markets P. M4
Striking Price P. M5
Commodities P. M6
Inside Scoop P. M7
13D Filings P. M7
Power Play P. M7
Charting the Market P. M8
Winners & Losers P. M9
Research Reports P. M11
Market View P. M12
Statistics P. M13
30,218.26
52-wk:+7.86%YTD:+5.89%Wkly:+1.03%
Dow Jones Industrials
3699.12
S&P 500
52-wk:+17.59%YTD:+14.50%Wkly:+1.67%
12,464.23
Nasdaq Composite
52-wk:+43.99%YTD:+38.81%Wkly:+2.12%
$18,993.34
Bitcoin in U.S. Dollars
52-wk:+157.37%YTD:+165.33%Wkly:+3.96%
10%
0
-2.5
2.5
5.0
7.5
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Close
Note: Bitcoin is traded 24 hours a day.Friday
MARKET PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD
Bitcoin’s Revenge
Stocks capped an
epic month with a
dip. The S&P 500,
Dow, and Nasdaq
allfelllessthan1%.
Bitcoin hit a
new high.
Tech Bounces Back
December kicked off
with tech stocks leading
themarketafterlagging
theircyclicalcousinsin
November. Bitcoin hit
another new high.
Pandemic Woes
The U.S. saw more than
195,000 new Covid cases
on Wednesday, while the
S&PandDowekedout
small gains.
Stimulus Hopes
The three major U.S. indexes
closedatnewrecordsonFriday
despitesignsofaweakening
labor-market recovery.
THE TRADER
Reopening
Euphoria
Rages On.
How Long
CanItLast?
T
he economy looks
to be stalling. The
market, on the
other hand, has no
brakes.
Payrolls numbers
released on Friday
were particularly weak. Employers
added just 245,000 workers in Novem-
ber, below expectations for 440,000
and October’s addition of 610,000.
“While the virus certainly weighed
on job growth, the economy more
broadly is simply running out of
steam,” wrote Natixis CIB U.S. econo-
mist Troy Ludtka.
Nonetheless, all four major stock
indexes rose to record highs on Friday,
the first time that’s happened since
November 2018. The Dow Jones In-
dustrial Average rose 1% during the
week, to 30,218.26. The S&P 500 in-
dex gained 1.7%, to 3699.12, and the
Nasdaq Composite increased 2.1%, to
12,464.23. The small-cap Russell 2000
advanced 2%, to 1,892.45.
Even Bitcoin got in on the action,
hitting a new all-time high of $19,920
on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.7%
from 6.9%, but the drop was caused
by more people dropping out of the
workforce entirely. And the jobs re-
port showed that a key sign of holiday
enthusiasm—the hiring of thousands
of workers to help with the holiday
retail rush—simply didn’t happen this
year. Some of those workers—but
clearly not enough—are helping with
online shopping duties, filling ware-
houses around the country or driving
vans from house to house.
Covid-19 rates are spiking through-
out the country, depressing economic
activity. Vaccines may be approved as
soon as this month, but they won’t be
widely distributed until well into 2021.
So why the optimism? Investors
expect Congress will step in to cover
part of the gap, passing a stimulus bill
before Christmas break. That could
tide the economy over and provide a
lifeline to workers who are about to
lose their unemployment benefits. Con-
gress is considering a bill that could
cost $900 billion, although Republi-
cans and Democrats were still at odds
about support for cities and states and
liability protections for businesses.
The worse the economy gets, the
By Avi Salzman
MARKET WEEK
“One of the biggest mistakes
investors make is overconfidence.
People think they’re better than
average at almost everything.”
- Nobel economist Dr. Richard Thaler