Dow +11.68, NASDAQ 7.35, S and P 500 +.45
10-year Treasury unchanged
The markets were mixed today. While the Dow advanced, a 5.7% drop in Pfizer was the primary reason for the drop. Pfizer announced on Friday that Celebrex, like its companion drug Vioxx, caused heart attacks in some patients. It should be noted that the study used 400-800 mgs of Celebrex, while the standard does is 200mg. Keeping the market up was a merger announced between utilities Exelon and Public Service.
The last two weeks of the year are notoriously slow in the bond market, as today's unchanged position indicates. Barring a financial shock, this trend will continue for the rest of this week. While Thursday and Friday are not official holidays, at least half of the trading desks will be empty or minimally staffed.
The conference board reported that "six of the ten indicators that make up the leading index increased in November. The positive contributors - beginning with the largest positive contributor - were stock prices, real money supply*, average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance (inverted), index of consumer expectations, manufacturers' new orders for nondefense capital goods*, and manufacturers' new orders for consumer goods and materials*. The negative contributors - beginning with the largest negative contributor - were vendor performance, average weekly manufacturing hours, building permits, and interest rate spread." The index of leading indicators has fallen for the last 5 strait months, which has worried the markets. The median estimate was an increase of .1%, so the number came in ahead of expectations.
The dollar fell again today. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported that there is a net short position in Euros for the first time in three years. However, this is not the beginning of a new trend in currency markets. Instead, traders are engaging in a year-end profit taking technical manuever that allows them to take profits in their Euro positions.