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By Alex Eule | Monday, December 27 Wall Street's Cold Math. The S&P 500 hit another all-time high
today, its second consecutive record close and the 69th of 2021. Once
again stocks are moving inversely to our success in stopping the
pandemic. Several U.S. states have blown past previous daily case records.
For the U.S. as a whole, the daily totals are quickly approaching
the January 2021 highs. Hospitalizations are
rising, but fortunately they're still nowhere near the January highs. The
case versus hospitalization divergence seems to be the market's main focus,
even on a day when the Omicron surge continued to cancel flights and force
other closures. As my colleague Nicholas
Jasinski wrote in Barron's over the
weekend, investors have moved on from daily case counts because
ultimately they're most worried about the health of the economy and the
likelihood of shutdowns. It's a cold calculation, but ultimately the one that
drives corporate profits. And investors got more good news late Monday, when the
CDC announced that it was cutting the recommended isolation period in half,
to five days, for those who test positive for Covid-19. "The change is motivated by science demonstrating
that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of
illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3
days after," the CDC said in its announcement. The move should allow more workers, especially those
with asymptomatic cases, to quickly return
to work. That could reduce closures and lessen the types of
flight cancellations that began
over the weekend. Travel stocks were among the few in negative
territory today, though the declines were fairly muted. Norwegian
Cruise Line fell 2.6%, MGM
Resorts was down 1.2%, while the major airlines
were all down a bit less than 1%. But this wasn't a
lockdown-focused day. In fact, the infamous stay-at-home stocks all fell
more than the travel stocks. Peloton
Interactive
was down 4.9%, Roku was off 2.4%, and Zoom
Video fell
2.2%. Retailers, meanwhile,
rallied, as data showed that shoppers continued to make in-person visits over
the holiday weekend. All told, holiday retail sales were up 8.5% from a
year ago, according to data from Mastercard
SpendingPulse. Macy's ended the day up
2.7%, Nordstrom rose 2.0%, and Home
Depot gained 1.8%. The retail optimism spread
across the market with 451 stocks in the S&P 500 rising on the day,
against just 46 losers. Barron's is now accepting nominations for the third
annual Barron's 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance. The
deadline for submissions is Jan. 15, 2022. Apply
here. |
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DJIA: +0.98% to 36,302.38 The Hot Stock: APA Corp +7.3% Best Sector: Energy +2.2%
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