Markets: News  

Mark DeCambre

Wall Street awaits a trove of economic reports ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday

U.S. stocks pointed to a mixed open on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average likely to retreat somewhat from its historic close above a milestone at 30,000 on the day before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Markets will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-the-stock-market-open-on-wednesday-thanksgiving-and-black-friday-11606253338?mod=mw_latestnews) and will see early closures on Friday. Due to the holiday, investors are bracing for a trove of U.S. economic reports Wednesday, including weekly jobless claims, a report on new homes sales, and an account of the Federal Reserve's most recent rate-setting meeting.

On Tuesday (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-poised-to-make-fresh-assault-on-30-000-11606221591?mod=market-snapshot), the Dow, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 index all closed at records.

After a record-setting day Tuesday, investors are preparing for a deluge of U.S. economic reports that could help to provide a fresh spark in a market buoyed by progress toward a coronavirus vaccine and growing clarity about Joe Biden's transition to the presidency.

Thinner trading volumes headed into the Thanksgiving holiday also can have the effect of amplifying market moves in either direction.

The data on tap may refocus investors to concentrate on the challenges that the world faces as it attempts to look past the current spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and into a world where treatments are readily available.

"Yes, vaccines have answered many questions, and we are in a much better situation today compared to the beginning of this year," wrote Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade in a daily research note.

"But, this does not change the fact that it is going to a fair amount of time before things get back on track. This means that optimism spurred by vaccine and political development maybe a little too much, and the reality is that the recovery path is still full of obstacles," he wrote.

Indeed, the global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed to 59.9 million on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html), while the death toll rose above 1.4 million.

On top of that (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coronavirus-tally-global-cases-of-covid-19-599-million-and-us-averaging-175270-cases-a-day-2020-11-25?mod=mw_latestnews), there are currently a record of 88,080 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, according to the COVID Tracking Project, (https://covidtracking.com/data/national)topping the previous record of 85,870 set a day ago.

That spike comes in a week in which AstraZeneca(AZN.LN) said its coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed with the University of Oxford can reach efficacy of around 90%, adding to a list of drugmakers, including Pfizer-BioNTech(BNTX) and Moderna(MRNA), racing to advance a viable vaccine.

Vaccine news and reports that Biden was set to select a candidate for U.S. Treasury Secretary, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, viewed as a steady hand for financial markets, has also helped to encourage stock buying.

Looking ahead, investors will be watching for a bevy of data that have been pulled forward due to the holiday:

At 8:30 a.m. Eastern

At 10 a.m.

At 4 p.m.

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-Mark DeCambre; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2020 07:50 ET (12:50 GMT)

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