Santa must still be recovering from the extremely cold weather.  Hopes have been dashed today, at least so far, that we would have a continuation of Friday’s gain.  The Nasdaq is leading the way down about 1%. Tesla’s (TSLA) decline is continuing, down about 8%.  The Dow is the only major indices in the green.  The VIX, the fear index, is also on the rise, gaining 3.88% to 21.68.

Six of the eleven S&P are in the green with Industrials the best performers.  Consumer Discretionary, Communication Services, and Technology are the laggards once again.

Breadth is negative, but worse for the Nasdaq, but up volume is higher on the NYSE.

Trade Deficit

The trade deficit was the smallest since December 2020, narrowing to $83.3 billion, down 15.6% from the prior month. It was the largest decline since 2009.

Consumers have been spending more on services of late than on goods, which led imports to decline to the lowest level in over a year, down 7.6%.  

Purchases were down across the board:

• Capital Goods -4.3%
• Consumer Goods -13%
• Vehicles -8.9%
• Industrial Supplies -6%
• Food and Beverage -5.5%

Exports also lost ground, down 3.1%, led by declines in industrial supplies and capital goods.  On a brighter note, exports rose in consumer goods +4% and vehicles +1.0%.