Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, December 28th, and I'm your host, Kim Kong. Our top story so far.

Cash was indeed king. Investors piled into cash this year as the Fed continued its unprecedented tightening cycle, while US debt also

saw record inflows.

B of A security strategist Michael Hartnett highlights in his flow show note that Cash saw

1.3 trillion dollars of inflows in 2023. A record

177 billion moved into U.S. Treasuries, while 162 billion flowed into investment grade

bonds.

Inflation-protected treasuries, or tips, saw record redemptions of $37 billion as rates

rose and inflation wane. Global stocks saw inflows of $152 billion,

with US large cap stocks getting inflows of $125 billion

and tech inflows of $44 billion.

And there was a record 73 billion in redensions from US value funds.

Check out the chart of how other asset classes did in 2023 on Seeking Alpha.

In today's trading, stocks are choppy, but the bias continues to be towards

the green in absence of any major catalyst. The major averages are up around 0.2%.

Among the early economic indicators, weekly initial jobless claims rose to 218,000, topping

the 210,000 expected and up from 2006206,000.

Continuing claims rose to $1.875 billion from $1.861 million prior.

And Penny Home Sales stalled in November, with the index staying at 71.6, compared to 0.8% growth expected.

Year over year, pending transactions dipped 5.2%.

Lawrence Eun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, said that although declining mortgage rates did not induce more homebuyers to submit formal contracts in November, it has sparked a surge in interest as evidenced by a higher number of lockbox openings.

...