Investing.com | Dec 26, 2017 06:40AM ET
by Pinchas Cohen
h2 Key Events/h2
During Friday's final trading session before Christmas, US stocks were mixed on volume that was 25 percent below average. Still, the most widely watched index, the S&P 500, was little changed as a selloff of Health Care (-0.32 percent), Consumer Discretionary (-0.19 percent) and Financial (-0.28 percent) shares was offset by sector gains in Real Estate (+0.65 percent), Materials (+0.38 percent) and Energy (+0.21 percent) stocks.
h2 Global Financial Affairs/h2Major equity exchanges in Europe and Asia are closed today. The post-Christmas Boxing Day holiday is being celebrated in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It's Christmas in Hong Kong and Italy.
This morning, Japan’s TOPIX retreated from its highest levels since the early 1990s, as traders took profits at the end of an exceptionally favorable year, weighing down the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. Shares in Dubai’s DFM General and Russia’s MICEX led the decline.
MICEX prices became expensive when the Russian ruble strengthened, even moreso on a day when international traders are on the hunt for markets that are open, since many major global indices are closed.
Treasury yields, including the 10-year note, edged higher today, after Friday's decline. It was he biggest weekly loss for the securities since September as investors contemplated prospects for continued US growth and reduced central bank stimulus. Treasuries stabilized after reports on Friday showed US consumer spending rose more than forecast in November and core PCE held steady, signs of economic vitality that should keep the Fed on track to raise rates in 2018.
After US drillers refrained from adding rigs for a second week, WTI Crude continues to trade above $58, for now, but oil prices fell this morning, down 0.1 percent at time of writing. Today’s decline—should it continue into the close—will have completed a Bearish Engulfing pattern, after yesterday’s highest close since November 24, the last resistance since June 2015, mirroring the drawdown of US crude stockpiles to their lowest level in more than two years.
In the aftermath of Friday's heart-stopping, 44 percent intraday plunge, dip buyers are supporting Bitcoin, which found resistance under $15,000. Today's up-move is a second day advance for the cryptocurrency, which pared most of last Friday's losses.
Gold also rallied, extending its bounce from the December 12, $1,238.30 low, rising 3.5 percent as it struggles with the resistance of a downtrend line since September 8.
The euro is sliding after yesterday’s second-day advance, even as Catalan separatist parties triumphed in regional elections Thursday night, reigniting the political trauma in Spain and diverting focus from Friday's positive eurozone data on French consumer spending, Dutch consumer confidence, and French and Dutch GDP which underscored the region’s health.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped with Spain’s IBEX 35 leading the declines. The country’s bonds also fell along with peripheral European government debt before recovering, while bunds were little changed after a selloff this past week drove yields to five-week highs.
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