Alan Rechtschaffen, senior portfolio manager at UBS Wealth Management USA, advises investors to look for ‘positivity, POTUS, Powell, pathogens and preparedness’ in next year’s markets.
US stock futures are being traded mixed ahead of the year’s final opening bell on Wall Street.
All three future indices are being traded with very little movement. The Dow and S&P 500 were down 0.1%.
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It will be a full trading day on the last day of 2020.
Traders will receive a final economic report to end the year in the form of initial claims for unemployment benefits last week. Note an increase from 30,000 to 833,000. Continuous claims, which track the total number of unemployed workers receiving benefits, are expected to increase slightly to 5.39 million. This is higher than the previous week’s reading of 5.338 million, the lowest since March 21.
In Europe, London’s FTSE fell 1.4% and France’s CAC fell 0.4%. German markets were closed.
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In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3%. China’s Shanghai Composite gained 1.7%. The deal was closed in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange marked the end of the year’s trades on Wednesday, with the Nikkei dropping 0.5%, and trades will not reopen until Monday of next week. Global markets will be closed on New Year’s Day.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I: DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGE | 30409.56 | +73.89 | + 0.24% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3732.04 | +5.00 | + 0.13% |
| I: COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 12870.001613 | +19.78 | + 0.15% |
On Wall Street, stocks made modest gains on Wednesday, keeping Wall Street’s major stock indices at or near record highs.
Energy and materials companies led the gains. Industrial and financial stocks also performed well. Small business stocks again outpaced those of their larger rivals, a sign that investors are feeling more optimistic about the economy.
The S&P 500 index rose 5 points, or 0.1%, to 3,732.04. The Dow gained 73.89 points, or 0.2%, to 30,409.56. The Nasdaq compound rose 19.78 points, or 0.2%, to 12,870.
Before the last day of trading in 2020, the S&P 500 was up 15.5% this year, while the Nasdaq was up 43.4%.
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In the energy trade, US benchmark oil dropped 18 cents to $ 48.22 a barrel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.