Volume Remains Light As New Year Approaches

Stocks are flattish again, with volume levels running well below avearage as traders look to pack it in for the year, and start their holiday early.

There has not been much in the way of news to trade on either. Today, the Chicago PMI came in at 60.0, which is well above the 55.1 consensus. This is a strong datapoint, and hopefully will translate into a higher ISM survey number when it comes out. There are some increasing signs pointing to strengthening economic growht next year.

The dollar is up again today, which is weighing on oil prices ($79) and gold ($1089). Semis are leading the action so far today, while bank stocks are lagging. Among the sector ETFs, technology is up +0.2%, while consumer discretionary is lower by -0.53%.

Asian markets were mostly lower overnight; the 10-year yield is flat at 3.81%; and the VIX is up fractionally to 20.11.

Trading comment: Nice to see Goldman Sachs (GS) up for a change. Today's action looks promising, and could be the first sign of reversal of the recent downtrend. A new stock we're adding to is WFR. We've owned this one in the past, and I think given how beaten down it is, it could do very nicely next year. I will try to do a more complete write-up of the name in a future post. I also still like IBM, which continues to creep higher and higher yet remains under the radar.

long GS, IBM, WFR