Period of seasonal weakness for Oil is coming to an end and investors may want to be on the lookout for some opportunities. Real Time Economic Calendar provided by Investing.com. **NEW** As part of the ongoing process to offer new and up-to-date information regarding seasonal and technical investing, we are adding a section to the daily reports that details the stocks that are entering their period of seasonal strength, based on average historical start dates. Stocks highlighted are for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice to purchase or to sell mentioned securities. As always, the use of technical and fundamental analysis is encouraged in order to fine tune entry and exit points to average seasonal trends. Stocks Entering Period of Seasonal Strength Today: Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Seasonal Chart Dominion Diamond Corp (TSE:DDC) Seasonal Chart The Markets Stocks closed flat on Wednesday as investors held the tape steady ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The S&P 500 Index was virtually unchanged during the low volume session with energy and material stocks dragging on the positive momentum realized amongst the consumer sectors. The large-cap index continues to scratch against short-term resistance just below 2100. The benchmark will get another shot at a holiday bounce on Friday when gains for the post Thanksgiving session average 0.35%, based on the past 65 years of data. Despite the quiet session on the trading front, a bounty of economic reports were released before the Thanksgiving feast. Starting with New Home Sales for October, the headline print indicated that sales rose 10.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 495,000. Stripping out seasonal adjustments, sales of new houses rose by 20.6%, a significant shift from the average decline for October of 0.5%. Still, despite recouping much of September’s plunge, the year-to-date trend remains below average. Sales remain on a downward path through the remaining two months of the year. Much of the bounce was attributed to sales of new homes that were either not started or under construction; sales of completed home lagged the average October change. It may appear that home buyers are reluctant to close on new mortgages leading into next months FOMC meeting, when the Fed is expected to raise rates for the first time in over a decade. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate in the US continues to hover just below 4.00%. The Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB) traded higher by just less than 1% following the report. Homebuilding stocks remain in a period of seasonal strength through to mid-February. S5HOME Index Relative to the S&P 500 Anther report released on Wednesday was Durable Goods Orders for the month of October. Headline print showed that New Orders of Durable Goods rose by a healthy 3.0%, above the consensus analyst estimate, which called for an increase of 1.5%. Excluding transportation, orders were still higher by a respectable 0.5%, once again surpassing estimates calling for a gain of 0.4%. Stripping out seasonal adjustments, the value of manufacturers’ new orders for capital goods industries declined by 2.4%, a significantly shallower decline than the October average contraction of 12.3%. The year-to-date trend, which has been gyrating on either side of the average line all year, is now back above average going into the seasonally positive final two months of the year. The above average Defense spending this year appears to be supporting the overall report, which continues to see a drag from non-defense capital goods spending. Aerospace and Defense stocks remain in a period of seasonal strength through to the start of May. S5AERO Index Relative to the S&P 500 Rounding off some of the more influential reports was an update on energy commodity inventories for the most recent week. The Energy Information Administration reported that oil inventories increased by 1.0 million barrels, while gasoline jumped by 2.5 million barrels. The days of supply for each moved in opposite directions with oil trimming a third of a day to end at 30.5 and gasoline adding half of a day of supply to end at 23.7. Gasoline days of supply is turning higher, once again, as refiners come back online after fall maintenance and oil days of supply appears to be topping out as refiners process a greater share of the raw input. The price of oil typically hits a low in the first week of December, trading higher through the remainder of the month. The period of seasonal weakness for oil is coming to an end and investors may want to be on the lookout for some opportunities. Sentiment on Wednesday, as gauged by the put-call ratio, ended bearish at 1.04. Sectors and Industries entering their period of seasonal strength: Seasonal charts of companies reporting earnings today: No significant companies reporting earnings today S&P 500 Index TSE Composite