Rocky terrain out there as markets look to find direction in the New Year- just as they did in the old year!.. Jittery may be a fitting description as we ease into the first week of trading in 2023. Markets getting knocked lower after the open on ISM data release and briefly touching negative territory before rallying into the afternoon where participants awaited the Dec 14 FOMC minutes release, after which, markets stumbled into the close, but ultimately managed to clock a gain on the day.

Not so fast, Santa..! (*Or whatever holiday jolly figure you fancy). Markets began the day drifting marginally higher with little additional catalysts ahead of the main event scheduled for 2pm. And then!.. A slowing in pace now set in stone, shifting from a series of 75bps raises, with the Dec rate hike of 50bps coming in as widely expected and the total count for 2022 coming in at 425bps of hikes!

Swimming amongst a ‘sea of red’ as they say.. A decidedly down day for almost everything the eye can see, that is unless you are the USD (DXY strengthening back above 105) or the VIX (+8.8%). Needless to say, breadth was heavily skewed to the negative with ~95% of SPX down on the day, which also means that the SPX is back below the 4k/200dma.

Markets were under water for the majority of the US session in Tuesday trading despite a rebound overnight as China re-opening speculation/fallout from unrest continues to unfold. There was little in the way of market impetus for today and, therefore, little conviction as well with breadth split ~55/45 up vs down.

US markets progressing steadily upwards and onwards today to the higher end of recent rangebound trading, which, until today the S&P had not seen a >1% move in either direction for 7 straight days. In case anyone is counting… SPX closed above 4k and INDU 34k (Dow 34k hats anyone?!)- both key psychological levels as we head deeper into a Thursday Thanksgiving holiday this week.

The fasten seatbelt sign is on, please remain seated until the sign has been turned off!…  Tuesday trading continuing the rally for a second day in a row this week amongst a stark change of tide from only a few days ago.  The S&P 500 seeing 98.8% of constituents trading higher on the day.  Last week saw 4/5 days into the red while the S&P (amongst a litany of add’l broad indicators) fell to and established new 52-week lows. 

US markets again feeling the inevitable weight of gravity after yesterday’s [short-lived] relief rally.  Market breadth scales tipped quickly back to the negative with all sectors firmly in the red for the session- (yes, including the ever-buoyant energy darling).  Crude slipping lower, unable to buck the trend even as OPEC+ discussing output cuts to come next week.