Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major indices registered gains at the start of this holiday-shortened week. The "Santa Claus rally" period (i.e. the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year) begins tomorrow and usually leads to positive moves in equities. Today doesn't fall within the official Santa Claus rally, but many stocks finished higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded slightly lower than Friday's close through most of the session, but settled 0.2% higher. The S&P 500 (+0.7%) and Nasdaq Composite (+1.0%) traded above their prior closing levels through most of the session, bolstered by gains in mega cap and semiconductor-related names.

Qualcomm (QCOM 158.24, +5.35, +3.5%) was a winner from the chipmaker space after jurors found that the chip company didn't violate terms of its agreement covering Arm Holding's (ARM 126.87, -5.28, -4.0%) designs.

NVIDIA (NVDA 139.67, +4.97, +3.7%) and Broadcom (AVGO 232.35, +12.15, +5.5%) were also top performers from the semiconductor space, contributing to the 3.1% gain in the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX). 

Fellow mega cap Eli Lilly (LLY 796.28, +28.52, +3.7%) was another story stock after the FDA approved Zepbound (tirzepatide) as the first and only prescription medicine for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.

Eight of the S&P 500 sectors closed higher and three logged declines. LLY helped boost the health care sector (+1.0%) while gains in mega caps and semiconductor shares boosted the communication services (+1.4%) and information technology (+1.4%) sectors.

• Nasdaq Composite: +31.7% YTD
• S&P 500: +25.3% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +13.8% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +12.7% YTD
• Russell 2000: +10.4% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• November Durable Orders -1.1% (Briefing.com consensus -0.3%); Prior was revised to 0.8% from 0.2%, November Durable Goods -ex transportation -0.1% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior was revised to 0.2% from 0.1%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that it showed a rebound in business spending in November, evidenced by a 0.7% increase in new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft -- a proxy for business spending -- following a 0.1% decline in October.
• December Consumer Confidence 104.7 (Briefing.com consensus 113.5); Prior was revised to 112.8 from 111.7
  • The key takeaway from the report is that consumers were substantially less optimistic about future business conditions and incomes than they were last month.
• November New Home Sales 664K (Briefing.com consensus 670K); Prior was revised to 627K from 610K
  • The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales, which are tabulated when contracts are signed, increased in November with the help of lower selling prices that were needed to help offset affordability constraints driven by rising mortgage rates.

No US economic data of note tomorrow.