When next we convene for this Ahead of Wall Street article, it will be next year. Other than that, trading activity is not expected to be much different than it will be today. Other than the half-day today, of course (read Zacks EVP Kevin Matras’ latest Profit from the Pros piece here).
Ahead of a new year in the stock markets, we see many things pointed in the exact right direction: much lower taxes for corporations, which will provide windfall dividend yields and share buybacks for shareholders; continually rising interest rates throughout next year, which will be advantageous to banks and insurance companies; improved consumer confidence leading to the strongest results in the retail sector in recent memory; even oil prices finally climbing back above $60 per barrel for the first time since prices collapsed two years ago.
Even the global marketplace, which had been saddled with difficulties from the European Union to China and the Pacific Rim to South America, sees little in the way of geopolitical static the way Greece, “Brexit,” certain Asian countries and Argentina and Brazil affected markets over the past few years. We do see some rumblings in places like the Middle East — Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem, Israel, in particular — but both are U.S. allies, and there appears to be no direct negative affect threatening the U.S. economy next year from either of them.
We hope you’ve taken advantage of our expert advice here at Zacks.com in 2017 — from articles such as Ryan McQueeney’s Top 10 Stocks Under $20 to Neena Mishra’s Best Performing ETFs of 2017 to Kevin Cook’s Bitcoin to $20,000 Before Zero — and will continue to do so in the coming year.
From all of us here at Zacks.com, Happy New Year!
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