Stocks edged lower amid thin trading after an unexpected drop in consumer confidence. The dollar advanced after a US government shutdown was averted.
Following solid gains on Wall Street Friday, equities struggled to gain traction at the start of a holiday-shortened week.
The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence decreased to 104.7, data released Monday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 113.2.
“The bounce in the stock market on Friday probably had a lot to do with the quarterly expiration, but it still calmed things down enough so that the last week and half of the year will probably be quiet and somewhat uneventful,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson says negative breadth — where the number of constituents falling outnumber those that are rising — may not matter as much for high-quality stock indexes with robust price momentum. Investors have shown a growing propensity to use price momentum as a key factor in their investment strategy, while de-emphasizing portfolio rebalancing, he noted.
“This all helps to explain the extreme concentration we’re seeing in many equity markets,” Wilson said. “The anomaly between breadth and price that so many are highlighting could normalize if/when the abundance of liquidity subsides.”
The S&P 500 fell 0.4%. The Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.7%.
Treasury 10-year yields advanced three basis points to 4.55%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index added 0.4%.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asian-stocks-eye-cautious-gains-223501752.html
