The fundamental environment in the US remains solid and there is a growing enthusiasm about the fiscal policies which the Trump administration will likely enact in 2025. Yet investor expectations are high, and much good news is built into the US equity market with certain sectors and securities at very full valuations.
Investors will be focused on commentary relating to strength of the economy and demand for loans, resiliency of the consumer and credit quality and how banks see the operating environment unfolding during the Trump administration.
A short trading week as markets will close Thursday to honor former President Jimmy Carter. Employment data is plentiful with JOLTS (Tues), ADP (Wed) and NFP (Thur) figures expected. NFP is estimated to add 160K jobs in Dec., down from Nov's 227K, which was a strong rebound from Oct's 36K that was impacted by hurricanes Helene/Milton and the BA strike.
It was a mixed week for stocks as the SPX and Nasdaq posted gains of 1.0% and 3.3%, respectively, while the DJIA declined by 1.8%.
U.S. stocks ended mixed with major indexes advancing or declining only marginally.