REUTERS/Herve Serefio
People displaced by fighting between rival militias take shelter under an old broken airplane at the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, December 7, 2013.
First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 16,026.3 (+6.1 +0.0%)
- S&P 500: 1,808.4 (+3.3, +0.1%)
- Nasdaq: 4,068.7 (+6.2, +0.1%)
And now the top stories:
- There were no major market-moving economic reports published today.
- According to the Federal Reserve's latest flow of funds report, household net wort climbed by $1.92 trillion in Q3. Rising wealth was spurred by a 2.0% increase in the value of tangible assets (household real estate value rose 2.3% and the value of consumer durables rose 0.7%) and a 2.4% increase in the value of financial assets (deposits rose 1.2%, credit market instruments fell 1.8%, corporate equities rose 5.6%, mutual fund shares rose 4.7%, pension fund reserves advanced 1.9%, and equity in noncorporations rose 2.2%). "In our view, the wealth effects that have resulted from the rising prices of financial and real estate assets have been a boon to consumption in recent quarters," said Barclays' Cooper Howes. "Given the lagged impact of these effects, we expect them to continue to provide a tailwind to consumption in the coming quarters as well."
- Economists are still trying to figure out when the Federal Reserve might begin tapering its stimulative quantitative easing program, especially in the wake of Friday's strong jobs report. But St. Louis Fed President James Bullard warns that inflation continues to be surprisingly low. "A small taper might recognize labor market improvement while still providing the Committee the opportunity to carefully monitor inflation during the first half of 2014," said Bullard in a speech to the CFA Society of St. Louis. "Should inflation not return toward target, the Committee could pause tapering at subsequent meetings."
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