Market: Wall Street limits the damage

(CercleFinance.com) - Wall Street is limiting the damage: the 3 main indices were down by 0.
6% on average at mid-session, but in the end, the S&P500 eroded by -0.4% (at 6.
050, it remains 0.7% off its highs), the Nasdaq by -0.33% (around 20.110).

On the other hand, the Dow Jones, which lost 0.6% at 43.450, recorded its 9th session of decline in 46 years, and fell back close to its 19/11 low (43,340 at most on Tuesday).

But despite this historic string of underperformances (at the same time, the Nasdaq has set 8 records in 11 sessions since December 3), the Dow Jones has not moved more than 5% away from its December 4 high (at 45.014Pts).

The S&P500, which has beaten 5 records since December 3, has seen the number of declining stocks systematically outnumbering rising ones (negative advance/decline ratio) over the last 11 sessions.

Growth stocks have also posted the biggest (under)performance gap against value stocks (which pay dividends regularly) since 1999, and the ratio is even identical to... 1984.

That's a lot of historical exceptions in such a short space of time, with average valuations for the S&P500 components shattering the records set in March 2000.
Tesla (+3.6% and +100% since November 5) shattered a new all-time high at $484 and has a PER of 130.... and Broadcom (-3.9% after +38% in 2 sessions) at 180.

With balance sheet dressing now in full swing 3 sessions from the '4 Witches', Wall Street failed to capitalize on the release of stronger-than-expected US retail sales data.
US retail sales rose by 0.7% on a sequential basis between October and November (versus +0.5% 1 month earlier).
The US Commerce Department reports that, excluding the sometimes volatile automotive sector (vehicles and equipment), US retail sales rose by just 0.2% between October and November.
US industrial production also fell by 0.1% between October and November (after -0.5% the previous month).

In detail, the Fed, which publishes these figures, reports that in November, manufacturing output rose by 0.2% sequentially (i.e. compared with the previous month), supported by a 3.5% rise in the motor vehicles and parts index.

For their part, the mining and utilities indices fell by 0.9% and 1.3% respectively.

Also according to the Federal Reserve, the capacity utilization rate in US industry deteriorated by 0.3 points to 76.8% in November, a level 2.9 percentage points below its long-term average (1972-2023).
The meeting of the Fed's Monetary Policy Committee begins today, and will conclude tomorrow with a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell.

A quarter-point easing is almost fully on the table, and investors will be watching the Fed Chairman's comments on the pace of future cuts.

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