Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Nears New High as Intel Stock Soars

This week will likely continue to see lower trading volume than usual in the lead up to the New Year's holiday. However, market participants that were around today were in a relatively jolly mood, with the main indexes closing higher to start the holiday-shortened week. 

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 37,545 the S&P 500 gained 0.4% to 4,774 – ending about 0.5% from its record closing high of  4,796.56 from January 3, 2022 – and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5% to 15,074.

With just a few sessions left in 2023, "the S&P 500 still has a shot at hitting a record high and extending its streak of up weeks to nine, which would be its longest run since 2004," says Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. 

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Larkin adds that the recent run higher in the stock market is pretty rare. "Since 1957, nine of the S&P's 17 previous eight-week winning streaks pushed to a ninth week, but only three of those made it to 10 weeks."

Home prices keep rising

An update on home prices was the lone data point on today's economic calendar. Specifically, the 20-city S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose 4.9% year-over-year in October, a quicker pace than the 3.9% increase seen in September. Detroit and San Diego saw the biggest annual increases in home prices among the 20 cities surveyed, while Portland was the only city to report lower prices vs this time last year.

"Home prices leaned into the highest mortgage rates recorded in this market cycle and continued to push higher," said Brian Luke, head of commodities, real & digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "With mortgage rates easing and the Federal Reserve guiding toward a slightly more accommodative stance, homeowners may be poised to see more appreciation."

Indeed, "mortgage yields exceeded 8% [in October], incrementally preventing existing homeowners with near record-low rates from selling their residences and relocating as higher financing costs make such a change more expensive," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. "The resulting shortage of homes on the resale market has driven up prices."

Intel stock pops on $25 billion investment news 

In single-stock news, Intel (INTC) jumped 5.2% after the company confirmed that it will invest $25 billion in Israel. Part of the money will support the construction of a chip-making factory in Kiryat Gat that is expected to open by 2027. The deal was agreed to in principle back in June and Intel, for its part, will receive more than $3 billion in incentives from the Israeli government.

INTC has been one of the best Dow Jones stocks in 2023, up 91% for the year-to-date. But analysts remain unconvinced of Intel's ability to keep the momentum going, possibly because it has been a big disappointment over the long term. 

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, Intel has a consensus Hold recommendation from the 44 analysts covering the blue chip stock. Plus, the average 12-month price target of $40.02 is below its current share price. 

On the other hand, Wall Street analysts expect these S&P 500 stocks to deliver major the biggest price gains over the next 12 months or so. 

FedEx announces $1 billion accelerated stock buyback program

Elsewhere, FedEx (FDX) rose 1.6% after the logistics giant said it initiated a $1 billion accelerated stock buyback program. FDX plummeted last Wednesday after the company's fiscal Q2 results fell short of estimates and it provided soft full-year revenue guidance. 

Despite that post-earnings selloff, Baird analyst Garrett Holland says investors should "remain buyers" of the industrial stock. FedEx is a "leader in global express delivery," and is "well-positioned to capitalize on secular growth in e-commerce,"  Holland writes in a note to clients. "Buy on weakness as cyclical leverage, structural margin opportunity, and attractive valuation continue to make FDX a top large-cap idea for 2024."

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