Democratic Underground - closing numbers and blather

Dow 10,428.02 -47.88 (-0.46%)
Nasdaq 2,096.81 -10.06 (-0.48%)
S&P 500 1,173.82 -4.75 (-0.40%)
10-Yr Bond 4.358% +0.028

NYSE Volume 1,554,360,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,879,391,000

There were a number of headlines surrounding individual companies on Tuesday, but none of those headlines carried any real market moving potential. Accordingly, the main point of interest for participants proved to be a batch of economic data that included the Q3 GDP revision, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence report, and the Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index. Two of those reports - GDP and the Chicago PMI - were stronger than expected while the Consumer Confidence report was deemed disappointing... As the most influential report of the bunch, the Consumer Confidence report, which checked in at 90.5 versus the consensus estimate of 96.0 and the prior month's reading of 92.9, stood in the way of the indices establishing any upside momentum. By the same token, losses were held in check as the data altogether made it apparent that the underlying pace of economic activity remains quite solid... Q3 GDP was revised up to 3.9% from 3.7% and the Chicago PMI showed a reading of 65.2 for November (consensus 62.0), which was down from 68.5 the prior month but still indicative of expansion in the Chicago region...The Chicago PMI, incidentally, has a strong correlation with the national ISM Index that will be released Wednesday morning... Economists are expecting a reading of 57.0 for the ISM Index... Meanwhile, the major indices traded in a relatively narrow range most of the day, but end-of-the month profit taking kept the market confined to negative territory... November showed the best performace of any month so far in 2004, with the Dow and Nasdaq surging nearly 450 points and 130 points, respectively... As a result, investors booked profits across the board and in such sectors as financial, utility, materials, consumer staples, and retail...The latter was hardest hit, recording its weakest showing since August, as spillover from Wal-Mart's (WMT 52.19 -0.96) November sales miss and some downbeat analyst comments helped strip 1.9% of value from the S&P 500 Retail Index... Chip makers also exhibited weakness, with the Philadephia Semiconductor Index falling 1.3%, ahead of mid-quarter updates from Novellus Systems (NVLS 27.09 -0.70) and Intel (INTC 22.44 -0.62)... Sectors showing strength on the day were few and far between, with healthcare, computer hardware, disk drive, homebuilding and transportation inching higher... The latter gained ground as crude oil fell below $50 to close at $49.13, down $0.63... The 10-year note showed some strength late in the day, surging 8/32 to yield 4.28%, but closed down 9/32 to yield 4.35%... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1373/1952. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1416/1721.

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