Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market continues to drift lower this week as losses across the major averages come closer to negating the entirety of last week's advance. 

The S&P 500 (-0.3%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%), and DJIA (-0.3%) currently sit in negative territory a touch above session lows as the market faces a broad retreat. All eleven S&P 500 sectors trade lower, though the action once again comes on lower-than-average volume, suggesting a mechanical consolidation rather than a change in sentiment. 

Losses are relatively modest in nature, with only the energy (-0.8%) and real estate (-0.7%) sectors holding losses wider than 0.5%. 

Corporate news flow is unsurprisingly light given tomorrow's holiday closure. 

NIKE (NKE 64.09, +2.90, +4.74%) is the top-performing S&P 500 name today, moving higher after disclosing that CEO Elliot Hill purchased 16,388 shares of common stock, reinforcing investor focus on insider conviction. The buy follows December 24 disclosures that Apple (AAPL 272.62, -0.46, -0.17%) CEO and Nike Director Tim Cook acquired 50,000 shares, while another director bought 8,691 shares, together representing a meaningful vote of confidence in the struggling athletic footwear and athleticwear giant.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA (NVDA 188.88, +1.34, +0.71%) is one of very few names in the information technology sector (-0.2%) that trades higher following a Reuters report that the company approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 306.36, +6.78, +2.26%) to increase production of its H200 chip amid growing demand in China. 

Elsewhere, precious metals prices are tumbling again today after CME Group raised the margin requirements on precious metals futures for the second time in a week. After a 10.5% price increase yesterday, silver is down $7.22 (-9.3%) to $70.69 per oz today. The materials sector (-0.4%) is down as a result, with Newmont Corporation (NEM 100.67, -1.19, -1.17%) facing particular pressure. 

While there is a smattering of stock-specific moves, the market is largely devoid of any meaningful catalysts in the final session of the year. As a result, price action has remained subdued and orderly, with the major averages now trading sideways after the initial modest retreat.

Reviewing today's data:

• Weekly Initial Claims 199K (Briefing.com consensus 226K); Prior was revised to 215K from 214K, Weekly Continuing Claims 1.866 mln; Prior was revised to 1.913 mln from 1.923 mln
  • The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims decreased unexpectedly, coming in below 200,000 for just the second time this year. This should be encouraging to a market that has grown more sensitive to signals from the labor market.