Wall Street's benchmarks may have closed lower for the day, but all three major averages have led monster gains for the month of November as vaccine sentiment boosted investor outlooks towards a speedy economic recovery in the first half of 2021. The S&P 500 Index record its best November in its history, increasing 10.9% for the month. But the S&P was not the biggest gainer, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocketing 11.9%. The Nasdaq Composite Index made double-digit gains at 11.8%.
November can be defined as the month investors moved their funds away from mega-cap tech names and "stay-at-home" plays into cyclicals and "recovery" plays following positive late-stage data from vaccine frontrunners AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)/BioNTech (NASDAQ: BTNX), and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA). The latter three vaccine developers have already applied for an emergency use authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with Wall Street betting that early vaccines will be able to be administered by mid-December.
Cyclical sectors on the S&P 500 widely benefited from the market rotation, with Energy (NYSE: XLE) leading gains at nearly 27%, while Financials (NYSE: XLF), Industrials (NYSE: XLI) and Materials (NYSE: XLB) all increased at least 12%. Dow-components Boeing (NYSE: BA) and American Express (NYSE: AMEX) were also big winners this month, increasing 45.9% and 30%, respectively. Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Disney (NYSE: DIS), Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) also outperform in November, each rising over 20%.
The month also marked big gains for cryptocurrency's darling Bitcoin, with its contract reaching an all-time high of $19,864.15 on Monday. The cryptocurrency has seen high growth this year following its 25% drop in March, with the coin up 174% for 2020.
Here's how the market settled to start the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.46% or -16.66 points to 3,621.69
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.91% or -271.14 points to 29,639.23
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.06% or -7.11 points to 12,198.74
For Stocks, General Motors (NYSE: GM) publicly revised its earlier deal with Nikola Motors (NASDAQ: NKLA) in a statement on Monday. GM most notably will no longer be taking a equity stake in the newly public electric car company, nor will be helping in the manufacturing of the brand's Badger all-electric pick-up truck. S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) announced that it will acquire IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) for $44 billion, including debt, in a deal that is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
For Sector Performance, only two of the 11 sectors on the S&P 500 was able to end the session with positive gains amid the market's broad sell off. Information Technology (NYSE: XLK) and Health Care (NYSE: XLV) were those two winners, however, both only made slight performance increases. Energy, continuing its trend of wild wins and losses, declined the most, with the sector falling over 5%. Financials also negatively performed, declining nearly 2%. Utilities (NYSE: XLU) and Industrials rounded out the bottom four, with both sectors dropping around 1%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) rose from its more than two year low on Monday amid the broad market sell off as investors pulled money from riskier bets. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, gained 0.1% to 91.84. Gold (NYSE: GLD) dropped to a five-month low on Monday, as the dollar strengthened and sentiment remained optimistic towards a speedy, vaccine-induced economic rebound. Spot gold fell 0.8% to $1,773.56 per ounce, with the yellow metal's value falling nearly 6% for the month. U.S. gold futures also settled lower, with the bullion slipping 0.4% to $1,780.10 per ounce. Crude oil futures also fell on Monday, but vaccine optimism led to both benchmarks rising by more than 25% for the month. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) contracts for January, which expire Monday, declined by 1.33% to $47.54 per barrel. The benchmark's more active February contract also fell by $0.48 to $47.77 each. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) dropped 0.4% lower to $45.34 per barrel. Both benchmarks were pressured on Monday from OPEC and its allies failing to reach a consensus policy on Sunday. The group is set to reconvene talks on Tuesday.
For Tuesday, market participants will turn their attention to testimonies from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.