foxex: Taking Profits

The Market Sum | Insight after the bell

By Gabe Alpert, Associate Editor

Monday's Headlines

1. Markets slip slightly before New Years

2. Tesla's new China factory hits production targets

3. The SEC proposes relaxing auditor independence requirements

Markets Closed

Dow
28,462.14 -0.64%

S&P
3,221.29 -0.58%

Nasdaq
8,945.99 -0.67%

VIX
14.81 +10.28%

Bitcoin
$7,307.01 -1.91%

US 10-Yr Yield
1.895 +1.12%

Markets Today

Markets slipped a bit today, with all three major U.S. indexes falling about 0.6%. Considering how strong returns have been this year, a slight slip isn't anything to panic about, especially as trading volumes have stayed low in the run-up to new years. It may have been profit taking from the strong returns this year, especially as no major news broke to push the market down.

Headlines

Tesla said its Shanghai factory is hitting its production target of 1,000 cars a week after less than a year since the company broke ground on the factory. The factory is the only wholly-foreign-owned car factory in China. It remains to be seen if demand will keep up with the ramped-up production as China cuts its electric-vehicle subsidies.
Alphabet's video-hosting platform YouTube is limiting what data can be collected from videos targeted at children. Content creators will have to designate when they make a video targeted at children, and will face Federal Trade Commission fines if they don't. In addition, kid-targeted content won't allow comments or personalized ads. These changes come in response to FTC allegations that data collection from videos targeted at children violates the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
The SEC proposed substantially relaxing rules regulating the independence of auditing firms. The rules would let auditors sell non-auditing services to companies affiliated with their clients if they determine that the affiliation is not "material." In addition, the rules change would lower the period needed to prove an auditor is independent from a company doing an IPO from three years to one year.

With New Years approaching, here is the schedule for market holidays around the world over the next couple of days.

More News:

GameStop Missed on Earnings, but the Stock Is Bottoming

AutoZone Beat Earnings, but Stock Failed at Risky Level

KLA Corporation Shares Double After Big Buying

chart courtesy YCHARTS

It was another quiet trading day with no major moves. Goldminer Newmont Goldcorp rose 2.5% and oil-and-gas-drilling company Helmerich & Payne rose 2.4%.

No major downward moves either today, despite the markets' small slip. IT services company CenturyLink slipped by 2.5% and so did oil company Apache.

Word of the Day

Profit-Taking

Profit-taking is the act of selling a security in order to lock in gains after it has risen appreciably. While the process benefits the investor taking the profits, it can hurt other investors by sending shares of their investment lower, without notice.

Today in History

December 30, 1853

Today in 1853, the United States signed the Gadsen Purchase, which purchased roughly 30,000 square miles of land for $10 million from Mexico. The land, which is now southern New Mexico and Arizona, was sold by Mexican President Santa Anna to help pay for his fight against ongoing rebellions in Mexico. Supporters of a southern route for a railroad to the Pacific wanted the land for the railroad. However, when the first transcontinental railroad was constructed, it went through a northern route and a railroad through the Gadsden purchase wouldn't be finished until 1881.

Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/december-30