Stock futures fell on Monday ahead of another batch of retail earnings reports, kicking off a shortened week for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 18 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.31% and 0.47%, respectively.
However, Disney bucked the trend and jumped more than 8% after the media giant announced that Bob Iger would be back as CEO, effective immediately.
Investors have been reflecting on the strength of the recent bear market rally, which began earlier this month with October consumer price readings and gained some momentum with last week’s wholesale price readings.
Traders had been watching messages from Fed officials last week, who were underwhelmed by the data and reassessed their optimism about the likelihood of a slowdown in inflation. Markets will get more Fed speech to digest when Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester and St. Louis. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks on Tuesday.
Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research said that, in his view, the Oct. December lows are the bottom and the S&P 500 could rise to 4,300 by the end of the year, he told CNBC on Friday night’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” point nearby. The benchmark index is currently at 3,965.34.
“What made the big difference in the market was the resilience of the economy, which was pretty amazing,” he said. “Everyone was arguing about whether we were going to have a soft landing or a hard landing — and meanwhile, there wasn’t any landing. Consumers didn’t get a recession Memo, they continue to consume.”
Retail sales rose in October, but at the business level, Target reported slower demand and Amazon announced it would lay off 10,000 workers — despite strong results from Home Depot and Walmart.
“Retail stocks, which tend to be in the top three in November, are in the bottom three in December and in the middle of the pack in January, although holiday spending may suggest,” said Liz Young, chief investment strategist at SoFi. said in a note this weekend.
“Seasonality has its place in market analysis and has some predictive power. But no matter the time of year, the economic cycle is stronger,” she added. “So far, with the Fed raising rates by 375 basis points, the yield curve inverting, inflation soaring, and commodity prices still part of the narrative, we can almost conclude we’re late in the cycle.”
Investors will be busy with another batch of retail earnings reports this week due to the short Thanksgiving holiday. Best Buy, Nordstrom, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Dollar Tree are all on deck.