Gunnar Rathbun/Invision for Walmart/AP Images
- US stocks were lower on Monday as investors focused on the ongoing holiday spending season.
- Consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online during the Black Friday sales event, according to Adobe.
- Cyber Monday sales are expected to be strong as consumers increasingly shift to online shopping.
US stocks edged lower on Monday, as investors parsed data on the holiday shopping habits of US consumers amid the start of the holiday shopping season.
Online spending hit a record $9.8 billion during the Black Friday sales event, according to Adobe Analytics, which represents year-over-year growth of 7.5%. Black Friday has become a mostly online shopping event in recent years as retailers extend their deals beyond brick-and-mortar stores.
According to data from MasterCard, in-store sales increased 1.1% year over year on Black Friday, while e-commerce sales jumped 8.5%. Overall, MasterCard said Black Friday sales rose 2.5%.
The holiday consumer spending continued today after retailers launched a slate of Cyber Monday deals. Adobe Analytics estimates that Cyber Monday spending hit a record this year of about $12.0 billion to $12.4 billion.
Fundstrat's Tom Lee said that the spending data isn't strong enough to send the Federal Reserve back into tightening mode. "I would not look at strong Black Friday numbers as something the Fed has to panic about," he said in a Monday note.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Monday:
- S&P 500: 4,550.43, down 0.2%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,333.47, down 0.16% (-56.68 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 14,241.02, down 0.07%
Here's what else happened today:
- The Beijing Stock Exchange is reportedly stopping big shareholders from selling stocks in a bid to sustain a market rally.
- The dollar is on pace for its worst month of 2023, dragged down by bets that the Fed is done raising interest rates.
- The S&P 500 will jump to a new record high of 5,000 next year, RBC said, joining bullish outlooks on 2024.
- The Israeli shekel topped foreign currency markets this month, jumping 8.8% against the dollar from a late-October low.
- US gas prices have dropped for 60 consecutive days, notching their longest streak of declines in more than a year.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil dipped 0.83% to $74.91 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 0.74% to $79.98 a barrel.
- Gold climbed 0.53% to $2,013.70 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield dropped 8 basis points to 4.39%.
- Bitcoin fell 1.63% to $36,848.