The market decided once again today that it liked the upside. The DOW closed up 60 points, the S&P 500 added 12, and the NASDAQ gained 47. The release of the Fed minutes from the December meeting had a positive effect. The NASDAQ was buoyed by better showings from most of the large technology leaders and a steadying move in the shares of recently beaten-up NVDA.
Breadth numbers were very strong at a 3 to 1 upside ratio. The VIX was lower to 11.82, a loss of 8%. The 11’s, especially the low 11’s, have been a strong support level for the VIX…and thus a stopping level for the market on the upside.
The auto stocks did better today with F and GM and even TSLA leading the upside…even after TSLA started lower after fewer than expected deliveries last month. The gains in the F and GM were a function of record auto sales in the U.S. during December.
Bond yields were moving slowly ahead of the Fed minutes. The dollar was a little weaker with the Euro finding good support around 1.04. As a result, gold moved up again to $1,164 an ounce and crude oil is back up to $53.03 on overall commodity gains.
Donald M. Selkin
These are excerpts from Don Selkin’s Daily Market Notes, abbreviated and updated with permission from the author. Don Selkin is the Chief Market Strategist at Newbridge Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC and provides the Fair Value analysis for CNBC each morning. The commentary provided in this Market Letter is intended to provide our customers with timely market analysis and should not be considered a research report. This Market Letter may contain, and is limited to: Discussions of broad based indices; Commentaries on economic, political or market conditions; Technical analyses concerning the demand and supply for a sector, index or industry based in trading volume and price; Statistical summaries of multiple companies’ financial data, including listings of current ratings; and, Recommendations regarding increasing or decreasing holdings in particular industries or securities. This Market Letter does not make a financial or investment recommendation or otherwise promotes a product or service of the firm. This Market Letter contains only news, facts, and commentary on information previously reported from a news source believed to be accurate and reliable by the author. These news sources include the following: Bloomberg Financial, Reuters, and the Associated Press.