Benzinga Published 7:00 a.m. ET Dec. 28, 2019
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A holiday-shortened week of trading nevertheless produced a new set of 2019 record highs and market milestones on Wall Street.
Nasdaq 9,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed essentially flat at 1 pm ET on Christmas Eve. It was a mostly uneventful shortened session and a far cry from last year’s 650-point Dow sell-off, the worst Christmas Eve for stocks in history.
The S&P 500 yet again made new all-time highs last week, and the Nasdaq eclipsed the 9,000 mark for the first time in history. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has outpaced both the S&P 500 and the Dow in 2019, gaining more than 35% year-to-date.
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“There’s pretty thin volumes in a lot of these moves we’ve had over the past couple of days, so it’s easier to move markets when there’s not much volume out there,” said Shawn Cruz, director of trader strategy at TD Ameritrade. “That’s one thing to keep in mind. When volume starts to come back in the first two weeks of January, that’s when we’ll get a better read of the market.”
Amazon reported a record 2019 holiday shopping season Thursday, including adding 5 million new free and paid Prime members in a single week. The Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick were among Amazon’s bestselling products of the season.
Walt Disney’s “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” generated $32 million in box office revenue on Christmas Day, making it the second-highest-grossing Christmas Day movie in history. “Rise of Skywalker” was only outdone by 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which grossed $49.3 million on Christmas Day.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry confirmed last week that the U.S. and China are close to officially signing their Phase One trade deal. China also announced it will be cutting tariffs on more than 850 products and is considering additional cuts to its banks’ reserve requirement ratios.
This week, investors have two more days remaining in the “Santa Claus rally” period, the five days between Christmas and New Years. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a 1.3% gain during that stretch, and the market has produced a positive Santa Claus rally in eight of the past 10 years.
Major U.S. markets will be closed Wednesday in observance of the New Year’s holiday.
Earnings on deck
Most U.S. companies took the week off from financial reporting during Christmas week, but a handful of companies will be reporting earnings in the week ahead.
Investors will be watching for earnings reports from struggling Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio on Monday after the company’s stock dropped more than 60% this year. Investors will also be watching fiscal second-quarter earnings from U.S. frozen potato and french fry giant Lamb Weston on Friday.
Economic numbers
On Friday, the Institute for Supply Management is set to release its monthly U.S. manufacturing data for the month of December.
Weekly business quiz
Since its founding in 1960, this company has come to operate more than 16,500 stores in more than 85 global markets from headquarters just down the road in Ann Arbor. It is the highest-grossing brand in its competitive product category, and it sells an average of 3 million products per day.
This company underwent a flavor and profile makeover in the last few years and even came to poke fun of its old branding in a saucy ad campaign.
Innovation is part of the company business, and this business considers itself a tech company that sells food rather than a food company that uses tech. It’s rolled out a zero-click ordering app, completed entire transactions on Twitter and designed a Chevrolet vehicle specifically for deliveries.
With its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange, this company has had a steady rise in value since 2004, with some bumps and plateaus in the last few years. In the last decade, its value has risen 3,271%.
This company delivers more than positive results. As cheesy as it sounds, it delivers joy to football watch parties, cafeterias and family game nights.
Answer: Domino’s Pizza
Benzinga is a financial news and data company headquartered in Detroit.
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