The market will close today at 1:00 p.m. ET, but for many folks it will never open. There are other pursuits of greater interest on this day after Thanksgiving, so trading volume will be undoubtedly light barring some major news development between now and today’s close.
Currently, the S&P 500 futures are down two points and are trading 0.2% below fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 42 points and are trading 0.6% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 22 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value.
There isn’t a great deal of news to digest, which isn’t surprising knowing that many corporate offices (even the home offices doubling as corporate work spaces) are operating in holiday mode. That means something entirely different, however, for the retailers on this Black Friday, which is anything but a quiet day.
The shopping malls will be busy and so will E-commerce sites with consumers partaking in a favorite pastime: shopping.
This understanding could concentrate some of today’s thin trading interest on the retail stocks, but just about anything can go on a day like today if the “trading masses” latch on to a specific stock or group of stocks.
For now, they aren’t latching on to much from a broader standpoint or even an individual standpoint.
Apple (AAPL) is the most high-profile standout, only it is standing out for being down 1.2% in pre-market trading. The weakness there follows a Reuters report that suggests problems at the Foxconn manufacturing facility in China could curtail November iPhone production by at least 30%.
Various reports continue to highlight China’s ongoing effort to get rising COVID cases under control with mass testing and lockdown restrictions. Activity in Beijing, for example, is said to be at a near standstill.
New stimulus measures, though, are being applied, including increased credit support for property developers and the People’s Bank of China announcing a 25 basis point cut in the required reserve ratio for most banks starting December 5.
The stimulus efforts have helped mitigate some of the fallout from the frustrating shutdowns, yet the zero-COVID policy continues to stand as a major obstacle for global growth prospects.
Looking elsewhere, the 10-yr note is up three basis points to 3.74%, the U.S. Dollar Index is up 0.2% to 106.34, and WTI crude futures are down 1.4% to $78.94/bbl.
Today’s price action in all markets should be taken with a grain of salt given the thin trading conditions; nonetheless, the price action is what it is on this day.
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Originally Posted November 25, 2022 – Market and traders operating in holiday mode
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