Some on Wall Street believe a Santa Claus rally will deliver more gains in the final weeks of the year, while others are playing it cautious until an upcoming Federal Reserve meeting is over.
Stock market participants are largely upbeat about the economic recovery, but whether the huge rally that began in March can be sustained remains an open question.
In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue-chips rose 0.8 percent to 10,471.50.
The technology-heavy NASDAQ composite, however, drifted down 0.18 percent to 2,190.31, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index eked out a gain of 0.04 percent to 1,106.41.
The market action over the past week “may signal the beginnings of a multi-week Santa Rally,” said Duncan Davidson at VantagePoint Venture Partners, referring to the traditional gains around the year-end holidays.
However, many analysts say it may be hard to build on the gains of some 60 percent for the broad market in the current environment.
Stock market action is often cautious around the time of Fed meetings, and speculation has swirled around whether the central bank will make a move toward an exit strategy from its huge stimulus effort at a two-day meeting opening on Tuesday.
While some traders have begun to price in rate hikes next year, Michael Gregory at BMO Capital Markets said this may be premature. He argues that the Fed will continue to pump money into the economy at least until March.
“The big question is how long will policy remain on hold afterwards?” he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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