Monday's Market Minute: Optimism Abounds

This morning ahead of and into the cash open, we’re seeing investors continue to express optimistic sentiment and risk-on appetite for global assets. The move up this morning comes in reaction to the drug maker Moderna Inc MRNA saying their coronavirus vaccine has achieved a 94.5% effective rate. Over the weekend, we heard from the Biden campaign and Dr. Anthony Fauci about how wide-spread lockdowns across the U.S. are unlikely and will be avoided; instead, they suggested a more surgical approach will be followed.

Today we’ll hear from the President-Elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris; they’ll provide details on their economic stimulus package, a 2 trillion dollar deal that focuses on clean energy and infrastructure spending. The Biden campaign estimates it could create 18 million jobs.

But, don’t lose sight of some of the other potential markets catalysts this week. We have a lot of attention this week on retail, with a handful of closely-watched companies reporting quarterly results: Walmart Inc WMT, Target Corporation TGT, Home Depot Inc HD, Lowe’s Companies Inc LOW, and Kohl’s Corporation KSS, to name a few. We also have Retail Sales figures due out, expected to inch ever so slightly higher, but with the disappointing Consumer Sentiment number last week, there are concerns related to consumption and spending trends.

There’s a lot of focus on housing data later in the week – Housing Market Index, Housing Starts and Permits, and Existing Home Sales are all on the schedule for the week.

Today on the Futures show on the TD Ameritrade Network, we talked about how it’s not just the indices here in the U.S. at or near all-time highs; there are multiple major markets that have been bid and are participating in some of the investor optimism we’ve seen off the March pandemic lows. So, keep an eye on Copper, Grains, and Energies, as commodities have been bid and have been reflecting some of the investor sentiment mentioned above, and reflect how investors have yet to reject recent bid sentiment as they remain willing to shrug off looming uncertainties. Simply put, the beat goes on!

Photo by Roberto Júnior on Unsplash