Wall Street On Track For Nervous End To Fruitful Year

(RTTNews) - Wall Street mood is once again nervous, as reflected by the U.S. index futures, which point to a narrowly mixed opening on Tuesday. With traders preparing to contemplate their final moves of the years, caution is likely to be the watchword. Nevertheless, a regional manufacturing and consumer confidence reading due to be released shortly after the markets open may provide some direction to the markets. Notwithstanding the day's performance, the markets are set to finish the year with a flourish, given the strong gains posted over the course of the year.

At 6:15 am ET, the Dow futures are slipping 1 points, while the S&P 500 futures are moving up 0.90 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures are adding 1.50 points.

U.S. stocks moved about in a lackluster fashion amid jitters over the overbought levels of the markets before closing mixed.

On the economic front, Standard & Poor's will release its S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for October at 9 am ET. Economists expect house prices to have increased 1 percent month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, the same pace of increase as in the previous month. On an unadjusted basis, the house price index is expected to have surged up 13.7 percent year-over-year.

MNI Indicators is scheduled to release the results of its manufacturing survey for the Chicago region at 9:45 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a decline in the index to 61.3 in December from 63 in November.

The Conference Board is due to release the results of its consumer confidence index for December at 10 am ET. Economists expect the consumer confidence index to improve to 76.8 from 70.4 in November.

In corporate news, SM Energy (SM) announced that it has closed its previously announced Anadarko Basin divestiture package, receiving total proceeds of about $329 million. The company also said it will provide additional liquidity to fund the company's 2014 capital program.

Netflix (NFLX) announced that it has amended its stockholders rights plan to accelerate the expiration date to December 30th, 2013, effectively terminating the plan as of that date.

The major Asian markets that remained open for trading showed subdued trading amid light trading volumes in the last trading session of the year. The Australian, Hong Kong, Indonesian, Japanese, New Zealand, Singaporean and South Korean markets were closed for public holidays.

China's Shanghai Composite Index showed some nervousness in early trading before advancing sharply in late morning trading. Thereafter, the average moved roughly sideways for the rest of the session before closing up 18.45 points or 0.88 percent at 2,116. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Weighted Average Index was up 11.92 points or 0.14 percent at 8,612 at the close of trading.

Among the averages in the region, Australia's All Ordinaries added 14.25 percent for the year, while China's Shanghai Composite ended the year down 7.56 percent, as worries over a hard landing and slowing economic growth curbed investor appetite for Chinese equities. The Nikkei 225 average of Japan closed at 6-year high of 16,291, up 56.72 percent for the year. The domestic market was the beneficiary of the three arrow strategy formulated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to fight deflation.

The French and the U.K. Markets are trading higher in a truncated session, while the German market is closed. The markets capitalized from the alleviation of the debt crisis and the general increase in risk appetite. The CAC 40 Index of France is on track to record gains in excess of 17 percent for the year compared to the FTSE's 14 percentage plus. Meanwhile, the German DAX Index is up 25.48 percent for the year and closed the year at a record high.