Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market opened to some profit-taking off of last week's record highs, sending the S&P 500 (-0.4%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.5%), and DJIA (-0.3%) lower this morning. 

Losses across several of the market's largest chipmaker names, including NVIDIA (NVDA 186.61, -3.92, -2.06%) and Broadcom (AVGO 347.15, -4.98, -1.41%), put pressure on the top-weighted information technology sector (-0.7%) and the PHLX Semiconductor Index (-1.1%). 

Tesla (TSLA 462.92, -12.27, -2.58%) is another mega-cap laggard, pushing the consumer discretionary sector (-0.7%) to a similar loss. 

The materials sector (-1.1%) holds the widest loss of the six S&P 500 sectors in negative territory. Metal prices, which surged to record levels last week, are dipping today, putting pressure on mining names such as Newmont Corporation (NEM 99.32, -6.46, -6.11%) and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX 51.51, -1.52, -2.88%). 

Meanwhile, the energy sector (+0.6%) holds a nice gain as the price of oil increases $1.37 (+2.4%) to $58.11 per barrel, while the defensive utilities (+0.5%), consumer staples (+0.2%), and health care (+0.1%) sectors are also modestly higher. 

Just released, pending home sales increased 3.3% in November (Briefing.com consensus 0.5%), from an upwardly revised 2.4% increase in October (from 1.9%).