Friday Market Note: Markets Closed for Christmas

By Jill Schlesinger of CBS MoneyWatch.com
Global stock markets are closed today in honor of Christmas, but investors have enjoyed a Santa Claus rally, with gains of over 6 percent in December alone.

Yesterday, stocks closed mixed, to finish up a holiday-shortened week, as investors absorbed a slew of economic reports. The Dow added 14 to 11,573; the NASDAQ dropped 5 to 2665; and the S&P 500 lost 2 to 1256. February crude oil was up $1.03 to $91.51, the highest price since October 2008.

Before checking out for the long weekend, investors absorbed the following reports, the totality of which confirmed a slow, but steady recovery:

• Weekly jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 420,000: The 4-week moving average showed an increase of 2,500, but continuing claims edged lower
• Orders for durable goods were down 1.3 percent
• Personal income (+0.3 percent) and spending (+0.4 percent) were up: The government said that a measure of inflation was at the lowest year-over-year level since records started in 1960.
• The Census Bureau said November New Home Sales increased 5.5 percent from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290 thousand: It was the weakest November on record and slightly below the consensus forecast.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 74.5 from 71.6 in November.

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated business analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and chief investment officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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