It's 1999 in the stock market — What you need to know in markets Tuesday

It’s 1999 all over again.

On Monday, the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 each hit a record high. This is the first time all four averages hit a record on the same day since December 31, 1999.

We’ve got a holiday-shortened week in markets, but on Tuesday the action begins to pick up some ahead of what is set to be a frantic morning of economic data on Wednesday.

Data, Earnings

On Tuesday, the latest report on existing home sales is set for release and should show a 0.7% decline from the prior month.

“We expect existing home sales to edge slightly lower, to 5.43mn in October from 5.47mn in September,” write analysts at Barclays.

“We expect some consolidation in sales of single family units following the jump in September. On the other hand, we look for a modest rebound in multi-family units to partially offset the decline.”

In corporate earnings, Campbell’s Soup (CPB), Barnes & Noble (BKS), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are all expected to report earnings on Tuesday.

Holiday Shopping

This coming Friday will mark the “Black Friday” holiday, the beginning of the all-important holiday shopping season.

And this season should be a good one. Or at least, pretty decent.

“The holiday shopping season is now upon us, but with slow growth to start the year many retailers are wondering if this holiday season will be something to celebrate,” Wells Fargo writes.

“Consumer confidence has remained roughly unchanged from the year-earlier period; however, consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions is more upbeat. A slight pick-up in inflation has led to flat readings of real disposable income; however, job growth remains robust. We expect holiday sales to rise 3.8 percent this year compared to the 2.9 percent last year.” (Emphasis added.)

Wells says its forecasted increase in holiday sales should push total retail sales higher by 4.2% in the fourth quarter of 2016.

But the firm is not without a slight word of caution. “Spending should grow enough to ensure the holidays are happy,” Wells writes, “but the price-conscious, cautious consumer appears to be sticking around for a while.”

The question, as always, is whether Black Friday even really matters.

Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley, thinks you’re probably better off being a little bit patient.

“Black Friday weekend and then the weekend right before Christmas are typically the biggest days for retail sales of the year, so industry and company indications about the first wave of holiday sales will be important to the economic outlook,” Wieseman writes.

“We caution, though, that the initial color — from TV reporters standing in malls to quick take industry sales trackers — in our experience ends up giving the wrong impression of Black Friday sales results at least as often as the right sense and should be viewed skeptically.”

I’d say you should wait for Cyber Monday. But, well, that starts on Friday, too.

Further Reading

How to get a debt collector to pay you (Yahoo Finance)

Inside the incredible run of Renaissance Technologies (Bloomberg)

Donald Trump’s win has ad agenies re-thinking everything (WSJ)

Reese Witherspoon is starting a media company (Reuters)

Tsunami warning issued in Japan after quake strikes off coast of Fukushima (Bloomberg)

Amazon explores sports package (WSJ)

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Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance.

Read more from Myles here; follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland