Following a five-week winning streak, the S&P 500 hit a new 2023 high, which caused stock futures to decline during overnight trade on Sunday.
S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.17% and 0.02%, respectively. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 edged down by 0.37%.
Following the announcement that it has agreed to pay $1.9 billion to acquire rival Hawaiian Airlines, shares of Alaska Airlines fell more than 1% during overnight trade. Both carriers are attempting to extend their reach along the West Coast with this move.
On Friday, the large-cap equities index reached its highest point since March 2022, increasing its gains for the year to about 20%. The blue-chip Dow has also increased for the past five weeks in a row and has gained 9.4% on the year. In 2023, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had a 37% increase.
The most recent surge was caused by investors’ growing wagers that the Federal Reserve will begin lowering interest rates in 2019 and remain unchanged at its policy meeting this month. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell tried to temper expectations of rate cuts, but the market ignored him, arguing that it was “premature” to expect policy to loosen.
Unsustainable is how some investors saw this rally.
Adam Crisafulli, the founder of Vital Knowledge, stated in a note that “things are really overdone at the moment.” “The discussion about earnings, the Fed, GDP, and inflation is far too simple, straightforward, and binary.”
The 30-stock Dow had its greatest month since October 2022 in November. These were the largest monthly increases for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite since July 2022.
Source (CNBC)