Weekly Stock Market Review – 12/4/2020

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This week the S&P 500 closed at 3,699.12, a gain of 1.67%, the NASDAQ finished at 12,464.23, a gain of 2.12%, and the Dow ended at 30,218.26, a gain of 1.03%.

Summary

All three major indexes hit record highs this past week. The United Kingdom became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and will begin rollout of it this coming week. The US could also soon see the approval of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, as the FDA will be meeting in the coming weeks to disseminate their findings.

Worth Mentioning

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment information for November. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 245,000. This was below analysts’ estimates of 440,000 and well below October’s increase of 610,000. The unemployment rate is now at 6.7%
• Zoom announced quarterly earnings this week, beating expectations on EPS, revenue, and future guidance. The stock was down for the week as its growth rate appears to be slowing
• Moderna’s stock was up big this week after announcing it was requesting emergency clearing from the FDA for its coronavirus vaccine
• Salesforce announced quarterly earnings, beating revenue and EPS estimates. Their revenue grew 20% last quarter, down from 29% in the previous quarter. They also provided EPS guidance lower than analyst expectations. Lastly, they announced they are acquiring Slack, the chat developer software, for $27 billion
• S&P Global has agreed to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion, in the biggest corporate deal of the year
• Mortgage applications to buy a home were 28% higher than this time last year
• Software company Snowflake reported its first quarterly earnings as a public company. They reported year-over-year revenue growth of 119%, lowered than last quarter’s growth of 121%. The stock was down big after-hours Wednesday but then up big Thursday
• Kohl’s stock was up big this week after Kohl’s and Sephora announced that the beauty company will open more than 800 mini-shops inside the Kohl’s stores by 2023, similar to a recent deal Target made with Ulta Beauty
• Shares of the retailer Express and the software company Splunk were both down more than 20% at one point Thursday, after they both missed earnings and EPS expectations for their quarterly earnings
• Nikola’s stock was down huge this week after their deal with GM was reworked
• Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 index in one day, December 21, before the market opens
• Jobless claims totaled 712,000. This was below estimates and the lowest number in months

Looking Ahead to Next Week

• The FDA will review potential covid vaccines in the next few weeks
• The government resumed talks regarding a stimulus package and will continue to discuss in the coming weeks
• Consumer Price Index data comes out Thursday
• Notable companies with earnings include Adobe, Cisco, Oracle, Costco, Medtronic, Lululemon, Peloton, Chewy, and Palo Alto Networks

Weekly Change in Each Sector:

Treasury Yield Rates

The 10-Year ended the week at 0.97%, compared to last week’s end of 0.84%

The 2-Year ended the week at 0.16%, compared to last week’s end of 0.16%