Stocks Consolidate, Gold Dips, USD Strengthens

#stocks #commodities #dollar #cryptocurrency #memes #economy #politics

$DIA $SPY $QQQ $RUT $VXX $GLD $USO $USD $DXY $MEME $BTCUSD $KNIGHTSUSD

DJIA -0.06 to 35754.69, NAS Comp -269.62 to 15517.36, S&P 500 -33.76 to 4667.45

Thursday, the S&P 500 dipped 0.7% as the market consolidated gainers from the past 3-days running. The NAS Comp (-1.7%) and Russell 2000 (-2.3%), while the DJIA closed flat to unchanged. 

9 of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed lower, including the consumer discretionary (-1.7%), information technology (-1.1%), and real estate (-1.4%) sectors with losses over 1.0%. The defensive-oriented healthcare (+0.3%) and consumer staples (+0.1%) sectors closed higher. 

• S&P 500 +24.3% YTD

• NAS Comp +20.4% YTD

• DJIA +16.8% YTD

• Russell 2000 +12.4% YTD

Key Commodities

WTI Crude Oil settled lower by 2.2%, or $1.56, to $70.87/bbl, Gold futures settled $8.80 lower (-0.5%) to $1,776.70/oz and the US Dollar Index is up about +0.4% at $96.24.

The Memes

Overall the meme stocks on our list traded lower on the day. But, in case you were wondering about the Roundhill Meme ETF (NYSEAMERICAN:MEME), it was trading down by about 4.8% on light volume.

Cryptocurrencies

Michael Saylor has probably spent more on bitcoin at this point than anyone else – and he is still buying. The CEO of MicroStrategy, a publicly traded business software company that now operates more like an unregistered bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), started his BTC binge with the firm’s cash reserves in Y 2020 and has not stopped.

Sometimes he buys the dip, sometimes at peaks, a sort of institutional-grade dollar cost averaging.

To date, MicroStrategy has bought 122,478 BTC worth about $6-B and is still on the market.

Mr. Saylor has positive views on bitcoin. In addition to being the world’s most secure digital asset, not a currency, bitcoin is “energy,” a creative life force, he says. Fiat, by comparison, is a dead end street.

US Economy

• Initial claims for the wk ending 4 December dropped by 43,000 to 184,000. That is the lowest mark since 6 September 1969. Continuing claims for the wk ending 27 November increased by 38,000 to 1.992-M.The Key takeaway from the report is that seasonal factors had a lot to do with the sizable drop in initial claims. On an unadjusted basis, initial claims increased by 63,680 to 280,665.

• Wholesale inventories increased 2.3% m/m in October following a 1.4% increase in September.

Looking Ahead: Investors will receive the Consumer Price Index for November, the preliminary University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment (MSI) for December, and the Treasury Budget for November Friday.

Politics

A group of House ultra-liberals is pushing to officially shorten the US workweek to 4-days, saying that the time is right following the "nearly two-year-long pandemic," in a statement this wk.

Representative Mark Takano (D-CA) the Vice-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, released a statement on Tuesday declaring that the group was formally endorsing a bill to shorten the official workweek to 32 from 40hrs.

Have a prosperous day, Keep the Faith!