Kick off to the week

Happy Tuesday morning to all football fans and investors! The 22nd FIFA World Cup 2022 has started on Sunday, and some late nights are ahead for Asian football fans until the 17th December.

In financial markets, global stock and oil prices weakened slightly on Monday. Treasury bonds have remained in a very narrow range almost unchanged, with the 10yr yield stabilizing at 3.825%. China reported a spike in COVID-19 cases and renewed lockdowns, which squashed hopes for a reopening of the world’s second largest economy this coming spring.

Oil had an interesting day. After China news and rumors of Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ mulling production increases, crude futures traded down as much as -5.5% during the session. But these rumors were dismissed by the Saudis, after which crude futures pared their losses.

In single stock news, there’s a new mouse in the house! Actually, rather the old one is back, as Bob Iger took back the reigns as CEO of Disney. (DIS US) Disney shares were up 6% on the day.

The Dow index edged out only a small loss?of -0.1% (thanks to Disney), while the S&P 500 lost -0.4% and the NASDAQ100 index around -1.1% for the day.

Coinbase (COIN) on the other hand had a rough day, down more than -9% as the FTX bankruptcy and fraud continues to send shockwaves through the market, and bitcoin traded again below the 16,000 mark. This also didn’t bode well for Cathie Wood’s ARK fund, which has been scooping up Coinbase shares since the FTX fallout began, and has allocated around 3.5% of capital. The biggest position in the ARKK fund right now are shares in Zoom, which represent close to 10% of holdings. Zoom reported after the close earnings for Q3. Results were mixed, with revenues miss and slight EPS improvement, with shares down -2.5% in the after hours minutes after the earnings release.

We have a quiet week ahead on the data front. Only Wednesday will see the important US PMI numbers as well as University of Michigan sentiment indices and the release of the Fed’s meeting minutes from their last FOMC meeting. Other than that, most Americans are looking ahead to the thanksgiving holiday. US Stock markets are closed on Thursday and half day on Friday, closing at 1pm EST.

The S&P 500 has been consolidating at elevated levels after the recent rally, and bulls and bears alike are still battling around critical support and resistance levels. Technical analysts are looking for a breakout from the 3910-4065 range into either direction, to determine the next leg in the market.

All the best & happy investing!?