U.S Confidence Improves, USD/CAD presents a Hammer

It was another quiet session on Wall Street as the major indices bounced back and forth across their opening mark. As mentioned in previous reports, market activity is expected to be minimal this week, due to the holiday season.

Economic data had a minor affect on the intraday session, as the U.S released its home price index and CB consumer confidence. According to yesterday’s report, house prices increased yet again for the fifth month in a row. The closely watched S&P/CaseShiller home-price index increased 0.4 percent from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, bringing the annualized drop in house prices to 7.3 percent, the smallest year over year decline in 12 months. Even though the numbers came out as expected and hinted towards a recuperating housing market, one must note that the recent bounce-back has been attributed to tax benefits supplied by the government.

Consumer confidence also surprised rising to 52.90, compared to November’s result of 50.6. The number pointed towards optimism among consumers, despite a lower than expected reading of 53.00 points.

From a technical point of view, the S&P500 finished yesterday’s session in red, the first negative session out of the last six. Energy was the lagging sector of the day, closing with a loss of -0.66%. Consumer Discretionary helped to balance out the session and finished with a 0.33% gain.

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