nov 30 reuters  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom tuesday data have yourself an omicron christmas 1110 et1610 gmt data released on tuesday revealed a few clouds in the sky with respect to consumer attitudes and factory activity even as home prices zoom further into the stratosphere to add insult to injury the emergence of the omicron covid19 variant suggests the pandemic is not inclined to give up the ghost just yet with the holiday shopping season in full swing the mood of the consumer who does the economic heavy lifting by contributing about 70 of us gdp continued to dim this month read more the conference boards cb consumer confidence index usconceci slid by 21 points in november to 1095 undershooting economist forecasts expectations about shortterm growth prospects ticked up but job and income prospects ticked down writes lynn franco cbs senior director of economic indicators concerns about rising prices—and to a lesser degree the delta variant—were the primary drivers of the slight decline in confidence but what about omicron while lynn expects a good season for retailers she adds that confidence and spending will likely face headwinds from rising prices and a potential resurgence of covid19 in the coming months delving into the reports subcomponents survey respondents grew slightly more pessimistic about both their current situation and nearterm expectations both slipped but the gap between those two measures remains unusually wide if past is prologue that exaggerated gap could be a harbinger of impending recession as shown in the graphic below growth of us home prices eased up a bit in september but are still running whitehot the sp case shillers 20 city composite usshpqeci shaved 05 percentage points to a yearonyear print of 191 coming in a shade below the 193 consensus the demand wave has been supported by a pandemic that seems to keep finding new ways to linger and combined with stilllow inventories and scarce building supplies home prices show few signs of coming back to earth housing prices continued to show remarkable strength in september though the pace of price increases declined slightly writes craig lazzara managing director at sp dji but is this a wave or the new normal more data will be required to understand whether this demand surge represents simply an acceleration of purchases that would have occurred over the next several years or reflects a secular change in locational preferences lazzara adds every city in the 20city composite posted doubledigit annual gains with phoenix in the lead for the 28th consecutive months with valley of the sun home prices up an astounding 331 over 12 months ago finally activity and midwest factories has cooled this month chicago purchasing managers index pmi uscpmieci slid by a steeperthanexpected 66 points to reading of 618 according to mni indicators a pmi number over 50 signifies expanded activity over the previous month while the omicron variant outbreak is too recent to have affected the data the stubborn longevity of health crisis and the effects its having on the global supply chain is likely to remain a drag on the manufacturing sector as rubeela farooqi chief us economist at high frequency economic observes potential moderation in momentum over coming months if supply bottlenecks and shortages intensify in response to renewed covid restrictions the graphic below compares chicago pmi with the closelywatched national pmi figure from the institute for supply management which is due to deliver its november figure on wednesday analyst see that number inching up to an even 61 from octobers 608 wall street is taking the gathering omicron storm to heart with all three major us stock indexes deep in red territory transports djt and smallcaps rut both proxies of economic health were suffering more than the broader market jpmorgan looks overseas for equity outperformance next year 1000 et1500 gmt jpmorgan says emerging markets and european stock markets are likely to outperform those in the united states next year even though us stocks are likely to continue to gain albeit at a more modest pace emerging markets suffered in 2021 “driven by slowdown in china as well as policy tightening inflation overhang em fx weakness and covid19 shocks” analysts at the bank said in a note on tuesday however “next year a combination of better em sentiment from current lows stronger earnings growth and convergence of historical relative valuation should lead to em outperformance vs dm” in particular jpmorgan prefers stocks in china indonesia russia and brazil over those in malaysia and peru in developed markets the bank sees europe as likely to outperform the us and recommends the united kingdom and italy over switzerland sector wise the bank maintains “a procyclical tilt…with preference for reflationsensitive sectors” this includes favoring energy and financials over staples and utilities consumer services over consumer goods healthcare over other defensive sectors and smallcaps over largecaps jpmorgan’s upside targets for 2022 are for the sp 500 spx to reach 5050 an approximate 9 increase while the msci eurozone index mieu00000neu will rise to 307 a 17 increase and the ftse 100 ftse to reach 8150 a 15 increase in emerging markets the bank expects the msci em index mscief will reach 1500 a 23 increase while the msci china index micn00000pus will rise to 116 a 32 increase and the msci emea miee00000pus will increase to 360 a 34 increase mondays bounce from fridays selloff is proving to be shortlived with us equity futures pointing to a sharply lower open on renewed concerns about the newly discovered covid19 variant omicron comments from moderna mrnao chief executive stéphane bancel to the finanical times cast doubt on the effectiveness of vaccines against the new variant while regeneron pharma regno said its antibody treatment and other similar drugs could be less effective read more both moderna and regeneron shares were lower in premarket as were travelrelated stocks such as airlines and cruise operators while oil prices slumped about 5 read more shortly after the market open 10 am est 1500 gmt fed chair jerome powell and treasury secretary janet yellen are due to testify before the us senate banking committee where they are expected to be questioned by lawmakers over high inflation and the potential impact of the new variant read more economic data on tap for the day includes the chicago pmi and consumer confidence readings for november below is your premarket snapshot for tuesdays live markets posts prior to 0830 est1330 gmt  click here read more