Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market trades lower as investors digest mixed economic releases. The S&P 500 is down 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite sports a 0.6% decline. Many names have participated in downside moves, leading the equal weighted S&P 500 to trade 0.7% lower.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are lower. The heavily-weighted financial (-0.8%) and information technology (-0.7%) sectors, which constitute 45% of the index, are among the worst performers thus far. On the flip side, the communication services sector has benefitted from ongoing buying in Alphabet (GOOG 202.44, +4.28, +2.2%). 

Total industrial production decreased 0.1% month-over-month in November (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) following a downwardly revised 0.4% decline (from -0.3%) in October. The capacity utilization rate fell to 76.8% (Briefing.com consensus 77.3%) from a downwardly revised 77.0% (from 77.1%) in October. Total industrial production declined 0.9% yr/yr while the capacity utilization rate was 2.9 percentage points below its long-run average.

The key takeaway from the report is that industrial production didn't show any strong rebound from the prior two months that were adversely impacted by the hurricanes. There was some modest strength in manufacturing output, but total industrial production is still lagging.

Business inventories rose 0.1% in October (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) following a flat report in September (revised from 0.1%). The NAHB Housing Market Index was unchanged at 46 in December (Briefing.com consensus 47). 

Treasuries have exhibited choppy action in the wake of this morning's data. The 10-yr yield, at 4.44% earlier, is down one basis point to 4.39%.