The Markets This Week

Posted on December 3, 2013 by The Weekly Commentary

‘Tis the season for stock-market gains.

How else can yet another all-time market high be
explained in a week lacking any obvious catalyst beyond the start last Thursday
of the holiday season, a traditionally auspicious time for equities.

Though prices
closed off highs, stocks rose 0.1% in a shortened trading week. Many pros are
looking—maybe hoping—for a sizable stock-market pullback before year end, even
a minor one, but that’s increasingly looking like a low-probability event
against the powerful upward inertia seen all year. Apart from those few
investors who remain short, few will find lumps of coal from Santa this year.

In the eighth-straight week of gains, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose 22 points, or 0.1%, to 16,086.41. The Standard &
Poor’s 500 index rose one point, to 1,805.81, down slightly from Wednesday’s
record close of 1,807.23. The Nasdaq
Composite index picked up 68 points, or 1.7%, to 4,059.89.

It’s hard to see anything other than seasonal bias
and inertia behind the latest rise, says Mark Luschini, chief investment
strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. The market has defied the ubiquitous
correction warnings, “forcing investors to commit long for fear of being
trampled” by the well-known holiday predilection, he adds (Source: Barrons Online).

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