Take a look at the S&P 500 performance since 2013 with and without #FAANG + Microsoft 👇
#Facebook, #Amazon, #Apple, #Netflix, #Google, and #Microsoft significantly outperformed the S&P 500 over the last 6 years.
Without these tech giants, the index would be barely moving since 2013…
2021 Option volume will top 9.8B contracts this year, a new record. A quick look at the leading products each month shows a consistent base of SPY, AAPL, QQQ, SPX, TSLA and IWM #retailparticipation
Around 39 million options contracts have changed hands on an average day this year, up 35% from last year and the highest level ever, according to Options Clearing Corp. data as of the end of November. Retail traders recently made up around one-quarter of all options activity.
More interesting read –
https://blog.publiccomps.com/rise-of-retail-investing/amp/
Did you know that, for over â…” of Decembers since 1960, the markets have delivered net gains to investors?
Regardless of the reason, many have aptly dubbed December’s bullish sentiment as the “Santa Rally.”
Of course, things are a little different this year (or, at least, similar to last year, which wasn’t exactly normal).
Inflation has jacked up prices of everything.
Despite the Fed’s accelerated taper, things are getting more expensive by the day.
Related, supply chain issues have directly impacted the average consumer’s ability to buy the gifts they need. It’s made travel more expensive, too, thanks to rising energy prices.
You’d think new COVID variant Omicorn would weigh the market down. And it has for the past few weeks.
The Santa Rally – It’s actually the last 5 business days of December and the first 2 business days of the New Year…
Which means it should be starting right about now.
And here’s the good news…
The bulls have come out with full strength just in time. Yesterday (which was last trading day before Christmas 🎅🏻) the Dow, Nasdaq, Russell and S&P 500 all saw significant gains as virus concerns eased.
Also, new data shows that consumer spending rose last month, while unemployment claims stayed below pre-pandemic levels last week.
Looks like Santa could be leaving the gift of profits under the tree despite the chaos after all.
Trade safe ..!!
What is Tapering ?
Tapering is to wind down quantitative easing (QE) policies which are implemented by a central bank (Federal reserve) and intended to stimulate economic growth. Fed launched Quantitative easing program in 2020 to help fight COVID-19 economic crisis
• What is current Fed’s Quantitative easing program ?
– Continue purchasing $80 billion of Treasury bonds and $40 billion of mortgage backed securities every month to increase the money supply, encourage lending and help bring the economy back from the dead. When Fed buys securities on the open market it takes them out of circulation leaving fewer for everyone else to compete for. With less supply, investors bid up the price of the remaining securities. When the bond prices goes up the yield does downÂ
When the Bond prices goes up, the Yield goes down
12/15/2021 –
– Unemployment rate is lowest in a decade
– Inflation is no longer transitory
– High CPI index
– Fed to taper bond buying
– Inflation moderately exceeding 2% target as being met and Fed would keep rates near zero until they were satisfied labor market conditions were consistent with maximum employment.
– Fed Officials now expect the unemployment rate to fall to 3.5% next year, below their long-run estimate of 4%. They now see core inflation ending this year at 4.4%, up from a projection of 3.7% in September, before falling to 2.7% at the end of 2022, versus a projection of 2.3% in September.
– After projecting three quarter-percentage-point rate rises next year, most officials penciled in at least three more rate increases in 2023 and two more in 2024. That would leave short-term interest rates slightly below what is known as the neutral level designed to neither spur nor slow growth.
– Market (S&P 500) rallied almost 1.63% and  QQQ tech heavy index rallied 2.28%
