Stocks near highs face Yellen, Cisco, shaky sentiment – Market …

Stocks near highs face Yellen, Cisco, shaky sentiment – Market …

By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — As concerns over an overheated stock market run high, investor attention this week will shift to the economy, the next Fed chief, and the outlook from tech bellwether Cisco Systems Inc.

The week’s data releases are likely to be muddied by the government’s October shutdown, making it even harder to figure out whether the economic recovery is solid enough for the Federal Reserve to back off its stimulus. Some earnings reports—notably Cisco

/quotes/zigman/20039/delayed/quotes/nls/csco CSCO
+0.80%

, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

/quotes/zigman/245476/delayed/quotes/nls/wmt WMT
+0.18%

, and a few other retailers—may help fill in the blanks.

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

/quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA
+0.54%

 finished up 0.9%, the S&P 500 Index

/quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX
+0.42%

 gained 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index

/quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP
+0.33%

 shed less than 0.1%.


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Stocks finished higher on the day Friday , including a record close for the Dow, after a report that the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected. Economic forecasters, however, are torn about the reliability of the October jobs report. Atlanta Fed President Lockhart said on Friday that some data will be less reliable through the end of the year.

Even so, earlier in the week, San Francisco Fed President John Williams told reporters that consumer confidence data will be a big factor going forward in the decision on when to start tapering some $85 billion a month in asset purchases. On Friday, consumer sentiment data hit its lowest level since 2011.

In the meantime, some investors are reacting to perceived signs of a frothy market. Outflows hit U.S. equity funds as stocks traded near record highs.


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“The market’s due for a rest and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners. Nolte said he still expects a 3% to 5% pullback from recent highs.

Societe Generale is taking an even gloomier view. It’s predicted a 15% correction for U.S. stocks, citing rising bond yields.

Currently, the Dow industrials and S&P 500 are 0.3% off their all-time highs, and the Nasdaq is off 1.2% from its latest 13-year high.

Third-quarter productivity and October capacity utilization data will be of particular interest to Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.

“Hopefully those numbers show a little growth, if manufacturing is keeping pace,” Pavlik said.

Thursday also brings the Senate confirmation hearing of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve. Yellen is expected to continue the dovish Fed policies of current chairman Ben Bernanke. Treasury yields, which spiked at the end of the week, are particularly vulnerable to any signs she’ll want to curtail the Fed’s bond purchase program as soon as this year.

Most financial markets are open Monday, Veterans Day, though there are no government data releases.

Janet Yellen takes the podium after being nominated to succeed Ben Bernanke as the new Fed chair.

/quotes/zigman/20039/delayed/quotes/nls/csco

Add to portfolio

CSCO
Cisco Systems Inc.

US

: U.S.: Nasdaq

$
21.54

+0.17
+0.80%

Volume: 84.78M

Nov. 15, 2013 4:00p

P/E Ratio

11.64

Dividend Yield

3.16%

Market Cap

$115.04 billion

Rev. per Employee

$650,455

/quotes/zigman/245476/delayed/quotes/nls/wmt

Add to portfolio

WMT
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

US

: U.S.: NYSE

$
79.22

+0.14
+0.18%

Volume: 5.84M

Nov. 15, 2013 4:00p

P/E Ratio

15.18

Dividend Yield

2.37%

Market Cap

$256.54 billion

Rev. per Employee

$215,790

/quotes/zigman/627449/realtime

Add to portfolio

DJIA
Dow Jones Industrial Average

US

: DJ-Index

15,961.70

+85.48
+0.54%

Volume: 126.46M

Nov. 15, 2013 4:30p

/quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime

Add to portfolio

SPX
S&P 500 Index

US

: S&P Base CME

1,798.18

+7.56
+0.42%

Volume: 656.78M

Nov. 15, 2013 4:30p

/quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime

Add to portfolio

COMP
NASDAQ Composite Index

US

: U.S.: Nasdaq

3,985.97

+13.23
+0.33%

Volume: 0.00

Nov. 15, 2013 5:15p

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Stocks near highs face Yellen, Cisco, shaky sentiment – Market …

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