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• Closing Market Update for Tuesday
  The Dow Jones Industrial Average® (DJI)...

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average® (DJI) notched a record-high close for the fifth straight day Tuesday, and the S&P 500® index (SPX) edged even closer to an all-time high as the market's holiday rally continued to keep its legs, fueled by the Federal Reserve's apparent policy "pivot" and optimism the economy can pull off a "soft landing."

  
  

  Tuesday produced another day of broad gains, with most major market sectors extending a rally sparked by last week's Fed policy meeting, at which the central bank scaled up its projection for rate cuts in 2024. Small-cap stocks continued to close a gap with larger counterparts as the Russell 2000® Index (RUT) jumped nearly 2% to a 16-month high.

  
  

  The S&P 500 ended within 28.19 points, or 0.6% of its record-closing high of 4,796.56, posted on January 3, 2022, the first trading day of that year. Here's where the major benchmarks ended:

  
  

  The S&P 500 index was up 27.81 points (0.6%) at 4,768.37; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 251.90 points (0.7%) at 37,557.92; the Nasdaq Composite® (COMP) was up 98.03 points (0.7%) at 15,003.22.

  
  The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) was down about 3 basis points at 3.924%.
  
  The Cboe® Volatility Index (VIX) was down 0.03 at 12.53.
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• ☕️ What Else Is Brewing Tuesday Morning
  US Steel is turning Japanese in a $14.1 billion deal....

  US Steel is turning Japanese in a $14.1 billion deal. US Steel, once the world’s largest company and a symbol of US manufacturing might that counts J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie among its founders, has agreed to be bought by Japan’s Nippon Steel. The deal ends months of speculation over the 122-year-old steel company’s fate after it rebuffed a $7.3 billion offer from domestic rival Cleveland-Cliffs over the summer. Assuming regulators and US Steel’s shareholders sign off on the purchase, it would make Nippon the second-biggest steel company globally and give it a major presence in the US market, which uses a lot of steel, especially to make cars.

  
  

  Nikola's founder gets four years for fraud. Trevor Milton was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday after having been found guilty of defrauding investors in the electric vehicle company he founded. While that’s less than the Elizabeth Holmes-level, 11-year sentence prosecutors had pushed for, it’s more than the probation he requested. Nikola was briefly the third-most-valuable vehicle company in the US, but its value plunged when a short seller accused the company of lying about its tech. Prosecutors agreed and claimed Milton fibbed about the company’s progress, including in an infamous video that purported to show one of its trucks operational and moving when it was really just rolled down a hill.

  
  

  A volcano erupted on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula yesterday near a town that was evacuated last month after a series of earthquakes signaled an eruption was coming. The government said the volcanic activity was the most powerful the area had seen since a major disaster in the 1970s.

  
  An earthquake in northwestern China killed more than 100 people, state media said.
  
  A new Texas law will allow police to arrest migrants for unauthorized border crossings, setting up a future confrontation with the federal government over immigration.
  
  A powerful rainstorm along the East Coast knocked out power to more than 800,000 people at one point and caused flooding.
  
  
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• US Shale Oil Output Set for 3rd Monthly Drop in Jan
  The Energy Information Administration expects US oil...

  The Energy Information Administration expects US oil production from major US shale formations to decline for the third month in a row to 9.692 million barrels per day in January, even as Permian Basin output is projected to hit a record 5.986 million bpd.

  
  

  Additionally, shale gas production is set to fall to 99 Bcf/d in January, which would mark the fifth straight month of declines

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• Oklahoma Finds It Hard to Break Up With JPMorgan and BlackRock
  The Wall Street Journal article by Jack Pritcher discusses challenges faced by Oklahoma in implementing...
  The Wall Street Journal article by Jack Pritcher discusses challenges faced by Oklahoma in implementing a law that requires the state to sever ties with financial firms boycotting the oil and gas industry. Due to high costs and impracticalities, it highlights difficulties in divesting from large banks and asset managers, like BlackRock and State Street, two of the blacklisted companies. The law is part of a broader movement against ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing, with Oklahoma's aggressive approach serving as a case study. Despite these challenges, the law has symbolically advanced the anti-ESG movement. ORIGINAL story HERE [behind WSJ paywall]
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• Closing Market Update
  (Monday market close) Bullish investors...

  (Monday market close) Bullish investors picked up where they left off last week, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average® (DJI) to a fourth consecutive record high close as the market extended a holiday-season rally behind ongoing optimism that 2024 will bring lower interest rates and a potential "soft landing" for the economy.

  
  

  The S&P 500® index (SPX), coming off a seven-week winning streak (its longest string since 2017), ended near a two-year high, as did the Nasdaq Composite® (COMP). Markets remained generally buoyant following last week's relatively tame inflation readings and a more aggressive outlook for rate cuts from the Fed.  Here's where the major benchmarks ended:

  
  

  The S&P 500 index was up 21.37 points (0.5%) at 4,740.56; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.86 points at 37,306.02; the Nasdaq Composite was up 90.89 points (0.6%) at 14,904.81.

  
  

  The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) was up about 2 basis points at 3.946%.

  
  

  The Cboe® Volatility Index (VIX) was up 0.25 at 12.53.

  
  
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