When my boss, Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian, instructed me to take over writing his Ahead of Wall Street column here on Zacks.com, he warned me that at this holiday week at the very end of 2014/start of 2015 there would likely be very few news items related to the stock markets. After U.S. data points coming out earlier this week, it turns out that — today, at least — he was absolutely right.
Nonfarm payroll data won’t come out for December 2014 until this time next week. Though employment seems to have plateau’d recently, indicating growth in the labor market, while not robust, looks to have kept on an even keel. Until further notice, oil prices will be staying historically lower, so no news there either.
There is some skepticism on the Euro markets, as European Central Bank (ECB) chair Mario Draghi made a statement that the ECB is at even a higher risk than expected of missing its price stability mandate. This seems to point in the direction of more drama for the euro in 2015. What this does, in effect, is help bolster the dollar. Basically, the narrative continues… nothing new to see here.
No new indications have come out regarding a bottom in commodities like oil & gas nor foreign markets like Japan. This should help further bolster the dollar in the near term. Next week should hopefully provide more catalysts for our forward look in this new year, which will be roughly a week before Q4 2014 earnings season begins.
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