November 23 – November 27 Week in Review
It was a record setting week for the major indices in holiday shortened trading last week. The big news was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 2.2%, crossing over 30,000 for the first time ever. As to the other major indices, the small cap Russell 2000 finished with a 3.9% gain, the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 3.0%, and the S&P 500 rose 2.3%.
As to sectors the S&P 500 energy sector, up 8.5%, and the financials sector, up 4.6%, led the way. Every other sector, except real estate, down 0.4%, ended the week with gains.
For the month of November the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are now up between 11 and 13%; the Russell 2000 is up 20%; and the S&P 500 energy sector is up 34%.
Positive catalysts last week included news that Joe Biden will nominate former Fed Chair Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, the General Services Administration saying it will finally release funds to help the Biden administration transition into office, and more upbeat vaccine and treatment updates for COVID-19.
Regarding the latter, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said their vaccine has an efficacy rate of up to 90%, and Regeneron Pharma said it received emergency use authorization from the FDA for its antibody cocktail. AstraZeneca acknowledged later in the week that it made a dosage mistake in its trials, likely prolonging federal approval in the U.S. at least.
The bullish price action in the market of late continued to feed on itself, contributing to investor fears of missing out on further gains and resulting in near parabolic moves in some parts of the market. For example Tesla surged 20% last week, Snowflake gained 23% and Palantir surged 52%.
In the bond markets the 2 year Treasury finished basically unchanged at 0.16% and the 10 year Treasury note yield edged higher by two basis points to 0.85%.
In other markets last week the U.S. Dollar Index closed lower to finish at 91.78, WTI crude continued to rise closing at $45.52 a barrel and gold closed lower at $1,790.70 an ounce.
November 30 – December 4 Economic Calendar