Attn. Investors: Watch Healthcare Stocks, Yuan Devaluation Speculation This Week

Credit Suisse just released its list of 10 things investors are watching during this holiday-shortened trading week. Here’s a breakdown of the list.

1. Weakness in crude oil and commodities persists driven by a strong dollar and yuan devaluation. A new article on Bloomberg entitled “Masters of the Finance Universe Are Worried About China” highlights prevailing concerns.
2. Saudi Arabia now stands ready to cooperate with OPEC and other countries to stabilize weak oil prices. The next OPEC meeting will be Dec. 4.
3. In the healthcare sector, shares of Allergan PLC AGN and Pfizer Inc. PFE were both down on Monday after a merger announcement was finally made official. Mallinckrodt PLC MNK surged more than 8.3 percent on Monday following a big Q3 earnings beat.
4. The Chicago Fed number, the Markit US Mfg PMI number and the U.S. October existing home sales number all came up short of consensus expectations.
5. Corporate stock buybacks could have a magnified impact on U.S. markets during a slow trading week. More than one in five S&P 500 companies has reduced its share count by at least 4.0 percent over the past year.
6. Credit Suisse’s cross-asset volatility contagion model points to U.S. rates, EURUSD forex and oil as the three biggest market volatility drivers at this time.
7. Market volume in the first three days of Thanksgiving week is typically 7.0 percent lower than average.
8. Hedge funds’ U.S. net exposure has fallen from 4 percent to -11 percent in November.
9. Qatar has agreed to waive a $1 billion penalty on India for breaking a long-term LNG contract in light of recent pricing weakness, a move that will likely add to jitters in the natural gas market.
10. Credit Suisse believes that the S&P 500 is at risk of a technical pullback to the 2063-2066 level, which the firm predicts will hold.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.