Holiday sales strong but markets flat

Original Link | RockwellTrading by Markus Heitkoetter

Traders were optimistic this morning after strong holiday sales.

U.S. retailers pulled in $7.9 billion in online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. But in spite of the better than expected retail numbers, trading was choppy this morning.

The S&P hit a new record high thirty minutes after the open before dropping below 2600 late morning. And that’s as exciting as it got for the major indices. In the afternoon the S&P was stuck in a 2 point range for 2 1/2 hours before finishing the day flat.

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Here’s where the major indices ended the day:

• The S&P finished flat. Down just a point, the S&P ended at 2,601.
• The DOW ended with a 0.1% gain. Adding 23 points, the DOW closed at 23,581.
• The NASDAQ was down 0.2%. With an 11 point loss, the NASDAQ finished at 6,879.

While stocks were quiet Crude Oil (CL) was on the move. After a lower open, Crude Oil continued to slide. Down 1.4%, CL ended the session at $58.12 a barrel.

Square (SQ) was also on the move, getting crushed after a downgrade by Morgan Stanley. Square finished the day with a 15.9% loss.

In other stock news, Time Inc. (TIME) jumped 9.2% after a deal to sell itself to Meredith Group (MDP), backed by the Koch Brothers. MDP was up 10.7% on the day. And Macy’s (M) rebounded from early losses, finishing the day with a 0.7% gain. The positive close wasn’t too bad considering a Black Friday snafu left the retailer’s credit card system down for several hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year!

Looking at tomorrow’s economic calendar things are pretty quiet. We have New Home Sales at 10:00am ET and some Fed commentary in the evening with FOMC Member Kashkari Speaking at 5:30pm ET and FOMC Member Dudley Speaking at 7:00pm ET.

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