Dow rose 196 (session highs & a new record), advancers over decliners 3-2 & NAZ rose 18. The MLP index was up 1 to 139 & the REIT index gained 4 to 373. Junk bond funds remained mixed & Treasuries were flattish in price. Oil was even in the 48s & gold added 7 to 1900 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell again blocked quick action on $2000 coronavirus stimulus checks on the Senate floor as he traded harsh words with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. McConnell in floor remarks lambasted the House-passed bill for $2000 stimulus checks as "socialism for rich people." The comments were his most direct to date on his opposition to Pres Trump's request that stimulus checks be boosted from $600 in the recently passed stimulus. "The data show that many upper-middle class Americans have kept their jobs, work remotely and remain totally financially comfortable," McConnell said. "On the other hand, some of our fellow citizens have had their entire existences is turned upside down and continue to suffer terribly. We do not need to let the speaker of the House do socialism for rich people in order to help those who need help." The majority leader earlier this week introduced his own bill for $2000 stimulus checks, tying them to other Trump priorities: repealing controversial Section 230 liability protections for online platforms & investigating election security. He made no promises that the bill would be considered, only vague comments that the Senate would "begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus."
McConnell refuses to budge on $2,000 checks as Schumer offers separate votes on other Trump demands
Exxon Mobil (XOM), a Dow stock & Dividend Aristocrat, expects higher oil & gas & chemical prices to boost Q4 earnings, but it is also expecting to write down $18-20B of upstream assets. The oil giant said chemical margins would improve by $200-400M from Q3, while downstream margins would
range from down $100M to up $100M. Changes in liquids
prices would boost upstream earnings by up to $400M from Q3. XOM has posted losses for 3 straight qtrs,
battered by weak oil & gas prices, a slump in demand caused by the
coronavirus pandemic & a big natural gas play in the acquisition of
shale producer XTO Energy that has proven to be badly-timed. The company
will report Q4 earnings on Feb 2. The stock fell 38¢.
If you would like to learn more about XOM, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/XOM?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Exxon Mobil expects to take up to $20 billion write-down in fourth quarter
Futures for gold closed out the year with a slight gain,
in a holiday-shortened week that wraps up a tumultuous, viral-stricken
2020 for financial markets. Commodity markets will be closed tomorrow in observance of New Year's Day. Gold futures saw modest gains in the face of a
weakening $ today, which has been a feature for $-pegged commodities for the better part of 2020, helping underpin
appetite for assets priced in the world's reserve currency. The decline toward a 2½-year nadir for the currency
has helped to foster gains in gold even as stocks have staged
a remarkable comeback from declines driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. That dynamic also has helped gold to its best annual gain in about 10 years. Feb gold picked up a slight $1 after touching an intraday peak at $1904, to settle at $1895 an ounce, following a 0.6% gain on yesterday. Commodity markets held on to their gains after a report on US employment showed
that initial state jobless claims fell 19K to 787K during the
Christmas week. That tally of a forecast of 835K surveyed for last week &
803K claims from the prior week. Meanwhile, state continuing jobless
claims drop 103K to 5.22M. For the week, gold is up 0.5% & up 6.3% in Dec, & has
seen a nearly 25% gain this year, with gains slowed to a mere
0.3% rise in the last 3 months. The year's gains thus far on
a percentage basis mark the best return for the yellow metal since an
almost 30% rise in 2010.
Gold, silver prices log best annual gains in 10 years as 2020 closes out final session
Oil futures traded modestly lower today, with crude set to end 2020 down by more than 20% in a year that saw demand slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted travel & business & consumer activity. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for Feb was down 21¢ (0.4%) at $48.19 a barrel. Mar Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 22¢ (0.4%) to $51.41 a barrel. However, WTI had a monthly rise of 5.8%, while Brent has gained more than 6%. WTI had a 21% fall in 2020 based on front-month contracts, its biggest annual decline since 2018 & its 2nd annual fall in 3 years. Still, the US benchmark staged a significant rebound from an unprecedented fall that saw an oil futures contract trade — & close — in negative territory for the first time ever in Apr. Brent crude had a 22% annual fall, its largest since 2015. Crude's spring plunge came as the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the global economy into recession & as Saudi Arabia & Russia engaged in a monthlong price war that flooded the world with unneeded oil. The eventual rebound came when demand saw a partial rebound as economies recovered to varying degrees and, moreover, as OPEC & its allies (OPEC+) instituted production curbs. OPEC+ meets Mon & is likely to further relax its output curbs, adding another 500K barrels a day to global supply. That's on top of an earlier relaxation that will see 500K barrels a day hit the market beginning Fri — & the group is scheduled to add another 1M barrels a day over the course of Mar & Apr. US production has also been ticking higher.
Oil prices end 2020 on a positive note, but suffer 20% annual fall as pandemic took toll on demand
This was a tumultuous year for stocks & commodities. The Dow finished with a gain over 2000 (hard to believe after dropping to a massive loss of 10K in Mar) & NAZ had a stellar advance of 3900 as the tech billionaires got even richer. The outlook for the stock market in the new year, as usual, is unclear.
Dow Jones Industrials
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