Here is a Market Recap for today Thursday, Dec 23, 2021. Merry Christmas!

PsychoMarket Recap - Thursday, December 23, 2021 The stock market continued its positive momentum, with all three major indexes pushing higher for the third straight day to close out the holiday-shortened week as investors continue to digest a trove of new economic data, including a report on inflation, and the FDA approval of Pfizer (PFE) and Merck’s (MRK) coronavirus anti-viral pill. Notable Numbers Today S&P 500 (SPY): +0.61% Nasdaq (QQQ): +0.75% Dow Jones (DIA): +0.55% Russell 2000 (IWM): +0.81% Volatility Index (VIX): -5.15% Tesla (TSLA): +5.81% Crocs (CROX): -11.93% Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) rose 5.7% in November, the fastest pace in over three decades. PCE price index rose 0.6% for the month, slightly lower than the 0.7% monthly gain in October. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 4.7% Personal incomes rose 0.4% in November, slightly lower than a 0.5% increase in October. That followed a 1% plunge in September, when federal unemployment benefit expansion came to an end. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.6% in November, a solid gain but below the 1.4% surge in October. Kathy Bostjanic, Chief US Financial Economist at Oxford Economics. said “Consumers spent with less enthusiasm in November as they shifted their holiday shopping to earlier in the season and continued to contend with escalating prices and reduced product availability.” While the consumer price index (CPI) is the better known price gauge, the Federal Reserve prefers to follow the Commerce Department's personal consumption expenditures price index in setting its interest-rate policies to fight inflation. The PCE price index tracks the actual purchases consumers are making each month while the CPI follows a fixed market basket of goods. The Labor Department’s Weekly Unemployment Report showed that initial jobless claims last week totaled 205,000. The latest print brings the four-week moving average for new claims to its lowest in 52 years, reflecting a very tight labor market. Merck (MRK) received authorization from the FDA for its anti-viral coronavirus pill, the second at-home treatment approved in the US. This follows Pfizer, who received approval for their COVID pill yesterday. The pill developed by Merck in conjunction with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, called molnupiravir, was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30% in clinical trial data. Pfizer's pill was reported to be 90% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients. On Wednesday, the latest estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was revised higher. Analysts now expect GDP to show a 2.3% annualized increase in economic activity in Q3, up from the 2.1% rise previously estimated. Moreover, the Conference Board’s highly anticipated Consumer Confidence Index report showed a greater than expected increase in December. The institution's headline index crept higher to 115.8 in December, based on the latest release. This was above the 111.0 expected, according to Bloomberg consensus data. Highlights November sales of new U.S. homes jumped 12.4% to a seven-month high. The Census Bureau reported that new home sales rose 82,000 last month from October to 744,000, buoyed by low mortgage rates and higher demand in the housing industry. U.S. durable goods orders rose by 2.5% in November, up from the prior month, boosted by a sharp rise in aircraft orders. Core capital goods orders, a measure of business investment in equipment that excludes aircraft and military hardware, fell 0.1% after an upwardly revised 0.9% increase in October Electric carmaker Tesla Inc will stop allowing video games to be played on its infotainment systems while its vehicles are moving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Thursday. Meta (FB) appealed the UK’s ruling that it must sell moving-image company Giphy. fourth-quarter sales in the U.S. are expected to jump 42.8% to 97,417 electric vehicles from a year ago and 28.8% over the previous quarter, the latest automotive industry forecast from auto information company TrueCar. TikTok was the most visited website in the entire internet in 2021, beating out Google. Nio announced that it received the U.N. certification on cybersecurity management, which is a major global mandatory regulation with regards to cybersecurity. It is widely applicable in countries such as the EU, the U.K., Japan and South Korea. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover." -Mark Twain submitted by /u/psychotrader00 [link] [comments] https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/rn5frb/here_is_a_market_recap_for_today_thursday_dec_23/