U.S. stocks are headed for a quiet start on Wednesday, and not much will happen as the year comes to a close. There are no strong signs to maintain the positive vibe about the first rate cuts that recently took the S&P 500 near its all-time high.
Before the official trading begins, there are not many people active in the market due to the year-end holidays. We’re waiting for Thursday’s weekly jobless claims data to give us something to talk about.
On Tuesday, the stock market performed quite well, even though there weren’t many people trading since it was the day after Christmas. The main index is just 0.5% away from its highest close since January 2022 and could record its best performance in three years by the end of this quarter.
If the S&P 500 closes above 4,796.56, it means the market has done very well since October 2022.
Peter Andersen, who founded Andersen Capital Management in Boston, shared: “At Christmas and New Year’s, things are usually quiet. But this week, I feel like a lot of people are hopeful.” He also believes that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates in 2024 and that the economy will continue to perform well, setting the stage for more gains in 2024.
The stock market accelerated two weeks ago when the Federal Reserve hinted at the possibility of cutting rates in 2024, which would signal the end of rate hikes. Traders are now fairly confident that there will be a rate cut in March, with a probability of 84%, up from 21% at the end of November.
At 8:14 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 16 points (0.04%), S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.25 points (0.03%), and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 12.25 points (0.07%).
Looking at specific stocks, Bit Digital saw a 5.2% rise in pre-market trading as the US-based bitcoin miner plans to double its operational mining fleet to approximately 6.0 ether per second in 2024.
Coherus BioSciences saw a huge jump of 34.9% after the US FDA approved its drug delivery device for its infection-fighting treatment.
First Wave BioPharma saw its shares more than double after agreeing to sell its inflammatory bowel disease drug to an undisclosed company.
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