Closing bell: Stocks gain as housing, consumer confidence data ignored

Posted Dec 30th 2008 4:16PM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: After the Bell, General Motors (GM), Market Matters, Economic Data, Recession

It is a bit odd that when both consumer confidence and housing prices hit levels of virtual collapse the market does little other than move up.

The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index dropped to 38, an all-time low. The Case-Shiller price index published today by Standard & Poor's showed that housing values in major metro areas dropped 18% in October compared to the same month last year.

The only plausible explanation for the market's indifference is the idea that all the bad news is already priced into equities. If so, trading may turn ugly early next year when stockholders find out this bad news is only the beginning.

The market was also unimpressed by the fact that the Treasury would supply $6 billion to GMAC, both directly and through General Motors (NYSE: GM). Shares in the big car company were only up 5%. Not much of an endorsement. The fact that GM could still go bankrupt must bother some investors.

The small war in Gaza did little to push the market down or oil prices up.

Maybe everyone has left for New Year's or they are simply shell-shocked by 2008.

Here are the unofficial closing numbers:

DJIA: 8,668.39 +184.46 +2.17%

NASDAQ: 1,550.70 +40.38 +2.67%

S&P 500: 890.63 +21.21 +2.44%

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Tags: Case-Shiller, Conference Board, ConferenceBoard, featured, GM, GMAC

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-30-2008 @ 4:29PM

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