Reports From the Range-Bound S&P
Once again, an attempt to shake U.S. equity markets out of their broad trading range has been foiled by panicked central bankers. As fear of a drubbing slowly morphs into fear of missing the next bull market, the S&P 500 index is moving through the middle of the roughly 350-point trading range (1020-1370) and toward recent highs near 1290. Since credit markets in Europe are temporarily stabilizing and equity markets have strong seasonality in effect, additional upside is likely into the end of next week.
While recent economic data in the U.S. continue to surprise to the upside, the same cannot be said for Europe and China. Last night, the closely watched Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 49.0 for November, below the consensus estimate of 49.8 and the prior month's reading of 50.4. Tomorrow we receive data on the non-manufacturing (services) series, compliments of the same Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics. Inflation data are set to be released on Dec. 8. I expect news out of China to present continued headwinds for the U.S. market, and I harbor little hope of a soft landing....672 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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