Asian stocks may get boost from record U.S. close
Asian stocks looked set for a tailwind Tuesday after another all-time high for U.S. shares on optimism that the global recovery can weather risks from the coronavirus and tightening monetary policy.
Equity futures for Japan pointed higher after the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ notched its 69th record close this year, led by the energy and technology sectors, though volumes were lower than average. U.S. contracts were steady. Hong Kong will reopen after a holiday and Australia remains closed.
Stocks' rally will likely survive the Fed's first hike, Crossmark says
Crossmark Global Investments's Victoria Fernandez said in a Monday interview with Bloomberg Television that historically equity markets continue to rise after a first interest rate hike and don't actually take a hit until after the Fed's second or third increase.
JPMorgan says investors are too bearish, no selloff in sight
"Conditions for a large selloff are not in place right now given already low investor positioning, record buybacks, limited systematic amplifiers, and positive January seasonals," the strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note to clients. "Investor positioning is too bearish -- the market has taken the hawkish central bank and bearish omicron narratives too far."
It's December 1999 based on the NYSE shares touching new lows
Amid all the celebration of a rousing year-end in stocks, Doug Ramsey has a sobering observation about a situation below the market's surface.
Last week, when the S&P 500 closed at a 52-week high, 334 companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange hit a 52-week low, more than double the amount that marked new one-year highs. That's happened only three other times in history -- all of them in December 1999, according to Ramsey, who is chief investment officer for Leuthold Group.
CDC recommends shorter Covid isolation, quarantine for all
U.S. health officials on Monday cut isolation restrictions for Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.
CDC officials said the guidance is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop. The decision also was driven by a recent surge in Covid-19 cases, propelled by the omicron variant. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the country is about to see a lot of omicron cases.
The metaverse won Christmas
$Meta Platforms (FB.US)$, Facebook's parent company, had the most popular app in Apple's App Store on Christmas: the Oculus VR app. It's a sign Meta's virtual reality headset was one of the most popular technology gifts over the holidays.
This gives Meta more opportunity to show customers the possibilities of its vision for the metaverse.
Holiday shopping fuels the return of credit card debt
After paying off a record $83 billion in credit card debt in 2020, Americans are on track to end this year back in the red. By the end of the year, Americans are now on track to end up with $70 billion more in credit card debt, according to a projection by personal finance site WalletHub.
Credit card balances are expected to continue to rise in 2022, according to one forecast.
Apple closes stores to customers in New York City due to surge in Covid cases
$Apple (AAPL.US)$ closed its stores in New York City to indoor traffic due to a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. Customers ordering online aren't restricted from picking up products outside retail locations.
The move, which affects its locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island, isn't a complete shuttering of stores like the company has done in the past to slow the spread of the virus.
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC

Weekly market recap
With stocks rebounding strongly during the past week, and some trading at record highs, investors will be looking for signs in the final week of 2021 whether that rally could extend into next year.
The S&P 500 set a new closing record last Thursday following encouraging reports about the lower-than-expected economic risks posed by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Here's a look at the return of S&P 500 sectors
The week ahead in focus
Dow Jones futures were little changed Sunday night, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally revived last week, with the S&P 500 nearly at a new high.
The market has a lot of history on its side that trading days before the year-end are positive for stocks. According to Bank of America, when the S&P 500 has already seen such solid gains, the final sessions are positive. Since 1980, there have been 10 instances where the S&P 500 was up 20% or more going into the last stretch of trading and in nine of those years, it ended the final five days higher.
With stocks heading into what has historically been a good time of year for stocks, investors will carefully monitor the latest news on the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant to see how it affects the U.S. economy and company earnings in 2022. The following is a list of earnings slated for release December 27-31, along with a few previews. Although this week's earnings are unlikely to have much of an effect on major market movements, it is sufficient to gauge investors' sentiment.
With the Fed forecasting three interest rate hikes for next year, economic data of all sorts is front and center for the markets.
The housing market has been a huge beneficiary of the near-zero rate policy, so all data on housing will be closely watched. On Tuesday, home prices data will be released. Pending home sales are to be reported Wednesday.
David Petrosinelli, senior trader at InspereX, said the next big data point for the market will be December jobs in early January. He expects markets to be relatively quiet next week.
Tuesday
9:00 a.m. S&P/Case-Shiller home prices
9:00 a.m. FHFA home prices
Wednesday
10:00 a.m. Pending home sales
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Jobless claims
9:45 a.m. Chicago PMI
$FuelCell Energy (FCEL.US)$ $Addvantage Technologies (AEY.US)$ $Cal-Maine Foods (CALM.US)$ $Baker Hughes (BKR.US)$
Source: CNBC, jhinvestments

Russian court fines Google 7.2 billion rubles: IFX
According to the International Information Agency: Russian court fines Google, in the amount of 7.2 billion rubles.
$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$
$Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$

$UnitedHealth (UNH.US)$ - stock close to all time highs. Stock has analyst price targets around $535 plus. Calls above $495
$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ - stocks option activity getting attention of CNBC Pete Najarian. Calls above $335
$Boeing (BA.US)$ - Boeing Reports Purchase Of 19 767 Freighters From UPS, No Terms Disclosed. Federal Aviation Admin. Has Proposed A Directive To Address Boeing 777 Engines With Pratt & Whitney Engines.
$MongoDB (MDB.US)$ - Stock breaking out of downtrend and having a nice bounce. Calls above $552
$Snowflake (SNOW.US)$ - stock forming cup and handle pattern on weekly charts. Calls above $360

$Disney (DIS.US)$ 153.96 am i buying too high

$NeuroMetrix (NURO.US)$ 👍

$Disney (DIS.US)$ good

$NeuroMetrix (NURO.US)$ wake up pls

$Uber Technologies (UBER.US)$ JPMorgan Chase issued a research report that it maintains Uber (UBER.US)'s "overweight" rating and lowered its target price from US$72 to US$68.
Xiaomo analyst Doug Anmuth believes that as the economy becomes more digitized, Uber's position in 2022 will be stronger than before the outbreak. However, he expects that "more diverse stock performance will continue," and that the company's business is a bigger factor in normalization after the new crown epidemic.
Anmuth predicts that as many companies face tough competition and move towards normalization, the level of growth will decrease. By 2022, investors will generally prefer e-commerce and subscription-based companies to online advertising companies.
Article excerpted from the US Stock Research Agency