Dow went up 295, advancers over decliners about 3-2 & NAZ gained 43.  The MLP index added 2+ to the 213s & the REIT index was steady in the 382s.  Junk bond funds crawled higher & Treasuries had only limited buying (more below).  Oil rebounded 2+ to the 73s & gold fell 14 to1796.

AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)

Biden admin pushes back after WHO rejects Trump's tariffs

10-year Treasury note was down by less than a basis points to 3.565% & the 2-year Treasury  yield hovered just above the flat line at 4.338% after dipping by less than a basis point.  Yields & prices move in opposite directions.  One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.  The Fed starts its last meeting of the year tomorrow.  Investors are widely expecting officials to increase interest rates by 50 basis points, marginally slowing down the pace of rate hikes after 4 consecutive 75 basis point increases.  They are also hoping that Fed Chair Jerome Powell will provide further guidance about future monetary policy in his remarks at the end of the meeting.  The latest consumer inflation figures are also due to be released tomorrow.  Investors will be scanning the data for insights into whether the Fed's rate hikes have been effective in pushing back against rising prices.  On Fri, producer price index data showed that wholesale prices had risen by more than expected in Nov.

Treasury yields are flat as investors look ahead to Fed meeting, key inflation data

As speculation continues to swirl over the future of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a new name has been placed on her short-list of possible replacements: Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan.  Moynihan, the long-time CEO of the nation's 2nd-largest bank by assets, is regarded by the White House as a candidate to run Treasury in the future.  According to people with knowledge of the Biden Administration's thinking,  His name is on a very short, short-list of replacements for Yellen that includes Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo & possible as a dark-horse candidate,  Securities & Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler.  Speculation about Yellen's future with the administration has been rampant for the past year, as the economy faced rampant inflation & a possible slowdown.  As Treasury Secretary, Yellen was said to be among the architects of Ts of $s in spending pushed by the White House thru a Dem controlled senate and house that stoked inflation & forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.  Treasury Secretaries often last a single presidential term or less because the job of leading the $23T US economy has a high burnout rate.  People close to the White House say the decision to step down will be the 76-year-old Yellen's to make.  Before becoming Treasury Secretary, she had a long career as a gov economist including as Federal Reserve chair during the Obama years.

New name added to short list to replace Treasury Secretary Yellen

Investors are slightly bullish about important news stories in the next 2 days.  The inverted yield curve (shown above), a classic signal of a coming recession, remains in place.  It has been around for most of 2022.

Dow Jones Industrials