US stocks register modest losses

S&P 500 and Nasdaq booked their first consecutive losses in three weeks

U.S. stocks ended Thursday's thinly-traded preholiday session with modest losses on 22 December 2016 as investors seemed reluctant to bid up prices of indexes that are already hovering near all-time highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite booked their first consecutive losses in three weeks, as the Trump rally lost momentum over the past few sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 23.08 points, or 0.1%, lower at 19,918.88. The blue-chip index struggled to hit 20,000 as the psychologically important level has eluded it for days amid stalled momentum. The S&P 500 closed 4.22 points, or 0.2%, lower at 2,260.96, only 11 points below its all-time high set last week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 24.01 points, or 0.4%, at 5,447.42, but is still hovering near its record level set on Tuesday.

Of the S&P 500's 11 main sectors, seven closed in negative territory. Consumer discretionary stocks were among the biggest losers, with the sectors finishing 1% lower.

The ICE Dollar Index was up less than 0.1% on Thursday. The dollar gauge, which measures the strength of the buck against a basket of six currencies.

At Wall Street there was mixed U.S. economic indicators on Thursday. A reading of third-quarter gross domestic product was lifted to a gain of 3.5% on an annual basis, while durable-goods orders fell for the first time in five months in November.

Separately, U.S. jobless claims climbed to the highest level since mid-June, rising 21,000 to 275,000. But even with this increase, overall levels of layoffs are still very low.

Bullion prices ended lower at Comex on Thursday, 22 December 2016. Gold prices on Thursday declined for a third straight session, adding to their December retreat, even as the dollar fell from a 14-year high notched earlier this week.

Gold for February delivery fell $2.50, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,130.70 an ounce, after logging narrow declines on Tuesday and Wednesday. For the week, gold is down 0.5%. If the metal logs another weekly loss on Friday, it will be the seventh weekly loss for gold in a row. March silver fell 10.8 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $15.87 an ounce on Thursday.

Crude-oil futures settled firmly higher on Thursday, 22 December 2016 at Nymex bouncing back after slumping a day earlier on reports of a surprise buildup in U.S. inventories. A strong report on U.S. gross domestic product and a larger-than-expected drawdown of natural-gas supplies helped to revive sentiment that domestic appetite for crude products may be able to sop up supplies in tandem with an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to curb global production.

West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in February picked up 46 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $52.95 a barrel. Meanwhile, February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange added 59 cents, or 1.1%, to close at $55.05 a barrel.

Futures climbed as the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that natural gas inventories declined by 209 billion cubic feet during the week ended 16 December 2016, more than double the average for this time of year.

Treasuries ended the day on a mostly lower note with the 10-yr yield rising one basis point to 2.55%.

Intraday investor participation was below average, but a volume surge into the close lifted the NYSE floor total above yesterday's level of 850 million to more than 875 million.

Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to the 10:00 ET release of November New Home Sales (consensus 573,000) and the final reading of the Michigan Sentiment Index for December (consensus 98.2).

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