Stocks Little Change in Lackluster Session
5:03 pm Friday, December 31st, 2021
Wall Street was little changed in light trading on Friday, with investors taking a breather as they prepared to ring in the new year and close the books on 2021, marking the second year of recovery from a global pandemic.
Price action has been tight-ranged all session, which is a full day of trading for the stock market but not the Treasury market, which closes early at 2:00 p.m. ET. There isn’t a lot of conviction right now, evidenced by ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors trading within 0.5% of their flat lines. Trading volume remains light at the NYSE.
It’s a mixed picture with six sectors trading higher and five sectors trading lower. The real estate sector (+0.5%) is claiming the top spot while the communication services sector (-0.7%) is down the most amid broad-based declines and a particular drag from Meta Platforms (FB).
Meta is down alongside the other mega-cap stocks, which are also weighing on the information technology sector (-0.4%) and the benchmark index. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) is down 0.3% while the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) trades fractionally higher.
Pfizer (PFE) is showing strength amid news that Israel will offer a fourth coronavirus vaccine to nursing home residents and that its oral COVID-19 antiviral was approved by UK regulators for people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
All in all, it’s not surprising to see the market slowing down given the S&P 500 is up 27% for the year. Instead, it’s more encouraging that there haven’t been concerted efforts to take profits.
WTI crude futures, though, are pulling back 2.0% to $75.44/bbl after entering the session with a monthly gain of 16.2%. The 10-yr yield is down two basis points to 1.50%. The U.S. Dollar Index is down 0.4% to 95.59.
Investors did not receive any economic data.
