Asset Allocations (Long and Short Term)

What’s in Today’s Report:

  • Thoughts on Asset Allocations (Short and Long Term)

Stock futures are trading higher this morning amid cautious optimism for a last-minute stimulus deal.

There were no market-moving economic reports overnight however updates from Washington suggest that Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin are continuing to make progress towards a deal ahead of today’s deadline.

Looking into today’s session, there is one economic report ahead of the bell: Housing Starts (1.451M), and a few Fed speakers: Quarles (10:50 a.m. ET), Evans (1:00 p.m. ET), Brainard (3:00 p.m. ET), and Bostic (5:00 p.m. ET).

Earnings season is continuing to pick up with several notable corporations releasing Q3 results today: LMT ($6.07), PM ($1.35), PG ($1.43), SYF ($3.47), TRV ($2.94), NFLX ($2.12), SNAP (-$0.05), and TXN ($1.26).

Bottom line, the economic data and Fed chatter likely won’t move markets today and while earnings could influence the price action in specific sectors, investor focus is almost exclusively on Washington and today’s deadline to reach a stimulus deal. So, reports of progress towards a deal will be supportive of stocks recovering from yesterday’s declines while news that the two sides remain far apart on certain issues could see stocks fall to fresh multi-week lows.