What’s it going to take to get the S&P 500 to rise in 2014? Better performance from stocks like Microsoft (MSFT), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Celgene (CELG), AbbVie (ABBV) and Plum Creeek Timber (PCL), for starters.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% to 1,826.77 today–its third consecutive decline this year–while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3% to 16,425.10.S&P 500 1826.77
The last time the S&P 500 fell three days to start off the year was in 2005, when it lost 2.3% over that period. The benchmark finished up 3% that year.
Shares of Microsoft, the S&P 500′s 4th biggest stock, fell 2% to $36.13 today despite announcing that it had sold 3 million Xbox One through year end. Berkshire Hathaway, its fifth biggest, dropped 1.1% to $116.28.Celgene declined 4.2% to $162.62 after its rating was cut by Goldman Sachs, Abbvie slid 3.7% to $50.39 and Plum Creek Timber shed 3.4% after Barron’s panned the stock.
Feeling nostalgic for last year’s gains? Goldman Sachs’ David Kostin and team note that it wasn’t just the price of the S&P 500 that closed at a record high last year:
The S&P 500 closed 2013 at 1848 setting a new record on the final day of trading for a total return of 32.4%. Many other records were set or maintained in the US equity market over the course of last year including Sharpe ratio, margins, earnings, inflows, dividends, and cash balances…After a year that broke so many records, where should investors look for growth in 2014? We recommend focusing on how firms will spend their record cash balances as economic uncertainty decreases. We forecast buybacks, cash M&A, dividends, and capex will all grow at a faster rate in 2014 than they did in 2013.And while Goldman Sachs sees the S&P 500 closing up just 3% in 2014, RBC Capital Market’s Jonathan Golub and Manish Bangard boosted their year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 2,075 today....MUCH MORE
DJIA 16,425.10
Previously:
Dec. 31
Indicators: Watching for a Down Start for the Market in 2014
S&P 500 Index 1846.36 up 5.29
DJIA 16,552.43 up 48.14.
Jan. 2
Following up on Tuesday's "Indicators: Watching for a Down Start for the Market in 2014"
DJIA 16, 441.35 down 135.31
S&P 500 1831.98 down 16.38
