The week between Christmas and New Year is traditionally a light volume week and this week was no exception.  Stocks finished the holiday-shortened week with slight losses on modest trading volume and no major news releases to shake things up.  The Eurozone crisis remained subdued and the US economic releases were encouraging.  For the year, the S&P 500 Index finished nearly flat, closing down 0.04 points from December 31st, 2010.  The DJIA rose 640.05 points and the NASDAQ, the worst performing of the three major indices, lost 47.72 points to finish at 2,605.15.    The US markets fared much better for the year than many of its global counterparts with the FTSE down 6.7%, the CAC 40 off 17.9% and the DAX fell 14.7% in 2011.

US equity markets closed fairly flat in light trading on Tuesday.  The markets were closed on Monday, December 26th, …

Not exactly the “Santa Claus Rally” investors had been hoping for, but encouraging economic reports and no more bad news from Europe allowed US equity markets to recover losses from last week and move ahead slightly for the week ending December 23, 2011.  The S&P 500 Index gained 45.67 points for the week, up 3.61% and the DJIA moved up 427.61 points to 12,294.00, up 3.48%. 

US equity markets struggled again in trading on Monday.  The S&P 500 Index lost 14.31 points to 1,205.35 and the DJIA fell 100.13 points to 11,766.26, extending losses from last week.  There were no new headlines from Europe over the weekend, but investors remained skittish.  Trading volumes were relatively light and most likely will remain so through year-end.  The Financial sector continued to be the worst performing sector of the S&P 500 Index, driven lower by an article …

US Equity markets struggled this week, finishing lower across the board.  The S&P 500 Index lost 35.53 points for the week (2.8%) and the DJIA fell 317.87 points (2.6%).  Disappointment lingered after the EU Summit last week.  US investors began to ponder the implementation of the joint agreement and focused on renewed concerns over Greece.  US economic data showed mixed results as the Core CPI rose more than forecasted, but the overall consumer prices rose less than expected.   

The broader domestic markets were weak on Monday as a result of investor disappointment with the European Summit on Friday and the anticipation of S&P’s potential rating downgrade of AAA entities in Europe.  The S&P 500 Index lost 18.72 points to 1,236.47 and the DJIA fell 162.87 points to 12,021.39.  Investors had second thoughts about what the joint agreement from the Summit last week could really …

US investors waited with bated breath for the EU Summit on Thursday.  The markets inched higher through the week on light volume until Thursday when some rumors about the possible outcome of the EU Summit began to circulate and markets moved lower.  The markets recovered on Friday to finish the week higher.  On top of the 7%+ gains last week, the DJIA rose 164.84 points this week (up 1.37%) and the S&P 500 Index moved ahead by 10.91 points (0.08%).  

In anticipation of another meeting between European officials, US equity markets rallied on Monday.  The S&P 500 Index and DJIA both rose strongly in early trading and retreated in the afternoon.  The S&P finished up 12.8 points to 1,257.08 and the DJIA gained 78.41 points to 12,097.83.  What drove the pullback was an early afternoon report from the Financial Times that S&P had issued …