Nasdaq Tops 20,000 Amid Market Turbulence

Last week marked a new milestone for the Nasdaq which crossed 20,000 for the first time. However, there was little else that was green last week. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both closed lower with the Dow closing much more so for the week. 

Much like the week prior, the gains were concentrated in a narrow segment of the domestic market; namely Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary. Because of the Dow Jones’ concentration of only 30 names, there wasn’t as much opportunity for the index to be supported by exposure to the two positive sectors last week. The remainder of the sectors ended mostly between two and three percentage points lower. 

The Style Boxes also looked similar to the prior week with green isolated to the Large Cap Growth quadrant. Everything else that wasn’t in the top right box saw losses yet again last week. 

In economic news, last week saw the release of the November Consumer Price Index. The year-over-year result saw an increase to 2.7% from 2.6%. Thursday held the release of the Producer Price Index which also saw an increase from 2.6%, but to 3% year-over-year. Mixed in with these economic reports was the initial jobless claims report which also saw an uptick in initial claims. 

This week holds the final FOMC meeting for the year. The CME Group has taken all this economic data in stride and increased the probabilities of a final 25 basis point cut to the FED Funds rate to 99%. Time will tell Wednesday if this holds true and what the interest rate landscape will be going into the new year. 

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Concerned about inflation? Check out our Tips to Reduce Risks In Case of Recession.

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The S&P 500® Index is a capitalization index of 500 stock-designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of stock representing all major industries. https://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500 The Dow Jones Industrial Average® (The Dow®), is a price-weighted measure of 30 U.S. blue-chip companies. The index covers all industries except transportation and utilities. https://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/dow-jones-industrial-average The NASDAQ Composite Index measures all NASDAQ domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Today the NASDAQ Composite includes over 2,500 companies, more than most other stock market indexes. Because it is so broad-based, the Composite is one of the most widely followed and quoted major market indexes. https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/Index/Overview/COMP The MSCI World Index, which is part of The Modern Index Strategy, is a broad global equity benchmark that represents large and mid-cap equity performance across 23 developed markets countries. It covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country and MSCI World benchmark does not offer exposure to emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index is designed to represent the performance of large- and mid-cap securities in 24 Emerging Markets countries of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. As of December 2017, it had more than 830 constituents and covered approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country. https://www.msci.com/ The S&P GSCI Crude Oil index provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark for investment performance in the crude oil market. https://us.spindices.com/indices Companies in the S&P 500 Sector Indices are classified based on the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®). https://us.spindices.com/indices