• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

Real Money Post Industrial Average Climbs 9.5% Over November

The RMPIA also tops other indexes for year, shooting ahead 29%.
By CHRIS VERSACE
Dec 02, 2020 | 11:30 AM EST
Stocks quotes in this article: TMO, BIIB, RGEN, BKNG, MA, SBUX, WBA, CVS, MRNA, PFE, BNTX, AMZN, GOOGL, COST, PYPL, AZN

Despite the setback for U.S. equity markets Monday, the S&P 500 limped along to the November finish line, climbing 10.8%.

This was the first year since 1982 that the S&P 500 has enjoyed two months with double-digit gains. The Russell 2000 rose 18.3% and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished the month 11.8% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.8% in November, notching its best month since January 1987. By comparison, the Real Money Post Industrial Average (RMPIA) climbed 9.5% during the month, bringing its year to date move to 29%, well ahead of the 12.1% for the S&P 500 and the 3.9% move for the Dow.

RMPIA's November gain was broad-based, with only three constituents -- Biogen (BIIB) , Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (RGEN) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) falling month over month. Those declines were more than mitigated by the pronounced moves higher in Booking Holdings (BKNG) , Mastercard (MA) , Starbucks (SBUX) , Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA)  and CVS Health (CVS) . The common catalyst powering those shares and other RMPIA constituents higher in November was the positive wave of Covid-19 vaccine announcements from Moderna (MRNA) , Pfizer (PFE) , BioNTech (BNTX) and AstraZeneca (AZN) . While hopeful for that light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel, we have to acknowledge the rebounding case counts and subsequent measures to contain it are likely to poise a headwind in the coming months. Already, JPMorgan Chase has cut its March 2021 gross domestic product outlook to negative 1%, and odds are we could see other negative revisions to the current quarter GDP forecast of 3.3% for that quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal's Economic Forecasting Survey.

While equity markets kicked December off in a cheerful mood, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is a bit more humbug. The rising cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks "is concerning and could prove challenging for the next few months," said Powell to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs this week, according to a prepared statement. "A full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to reengage in a broad range of activities."

Powell will stress that fiscal support, such as enhanced and extended unemployment insurance benefits, helped fuel the U.S.'s economic recovery so far.

As we closed out November, we had the start of the holiday shopping season, an event that benefited several RMPIA constituents, including Amazon (AMZN) , Google (GOOGL) , Costco Wholesale (COST) , Starbucks, Mastercard and PayPal (PYPL) , as shoppers flocked online instead of to brick & mortar stores. With efforts to contain the spread of the virus expanding, the probability is high that shopping modality will be the big winner this year, pulling those shares and others higher.

While we cheer that development, investor focus will likely return to Washington as Congress returns to tackle funding the U.S. government and attempting to hash out a coronavirus relief package. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he wants Congress to pass a stimulus package before the end of the year and several Democratic senators have signaled they want the bill to extend $600 per week in unemployment benefits -- a sign that Democrats might be willing to settle for a smaller stimulus package than what they had pushed for. With a tight calendar before the House set to adjourn for the year on Dec. 10, and the Senate on Dec. 18, we have to wait and see what gets accomplished. At the same time, the UK and EU have entered the "last leg" of Brexit negotiations and the latest move to exclude China listed equities in the U.S. could complicate existing U.S.-China trade relations. We could very well see a volatile finish to the year, but as we've said previously, RMPIA has been constructed to play out on several long-term structural changes -- we don't see that changing in the coming months.

(COST, GOOGL, AMZN, JPM, SBUX, MA and CVS are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells these stocks? Learn more now.)

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, Versace had no position in any security mentioned.

TAGS: Investing | Stocks | Real Money

More from Stocks

Every SPAC Deal Is Being Heavily Scrutinized but Here Are 2 I Like

Timothy Collins
Apr 12, 2021 11:30 AM EDT

Mudrick Capital and Ginkgo Bioworks are long-term buying opportunities.

Plug Power Is Still Unplugged

Bruce Kamich
Apr 12, 2021 11:21 AM EDT

The charts of PLUG are bearish and losing power.

I've Got Wine and Baseball Cards on My Mind

Jonathan Heller
Apr 12, 2021 11:00 AM EDT

Two new IPOs are on my radar.

Liquidity Dries Up and Small-Caps Are Slammed

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Apr 12, 2021 10:55 AM EDT

There is some very ugly action under the surface.

Adaptable Uber Has Managed to Stay in the Game - Here's an Earnings Trade Idea

Stephen Guilfoyle
Apr 12, 2021 10:44 AM EDT

Uber has now said that demand for the ride hailing service is recovering faster than driver availability.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 04:44 PM EDT PAUL PRICE

    Pretty Incredible + Hard to Believe

  • 11:18 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    The 5 Pillars of Exceptional Trading
  • 08:05 AM EDT BOB LANG

    Bitcoin vs. Gold: Which Should You Invest In Now?

    Read my article TheStreet here!
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2021 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login