John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended November 27th

Record highs all around

The S&P 500 and the Dow added to the records they had set earlier in November, while the NASDAQ topped a previous all-time high that it had recorded in early September. The Dow topped 30,000 points for the first time on Tuesday but slipped below that level by Friday’s close; the NASDAQ eclipsed 12,000, a threshold it had briefly reached in early September.

Earnings losers

Analysis of the recently completed quarterly earnings season shows that just three out of the 63 industries in the S&P 500 accounted for an outsized share of the index’s overall 6% earnings decline. Excluding those three industries, the S&P 500 would have reported earnings growth rather than a decline, according to FactSet. The trio of losers are the oil, gas, and consumable fuels industry; the airlines industry; and the hotels, restaurants, and leisure industry.

Calm stretch

Investors’ expectations of short-term stock market volatility have eased in recent weeks to the lowest level since mid-February, when the coronavirus pandemic sent markets reeling. A gauge of those expectations, the Cboe Volatility Index, was down 49% on Friday from a recent high on October 28.

Jobs ahead

A monthly labor market update due out on Friday is likely to be the week’s most closely watched economic report. The data will show whether November will maintain the pace of job growth seen in October, when the economy generated 638,000 new jobs and unemployment fell to 6.9% from 7.9% in the previous month.