Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (flat), and DJIA (flat) sit flattish shortly after a subdued opening.

Five S&P 500 sectors hold gains, but only the communication services sector (+0.7%) advances more than 0.3% as Alphabet (GOOG 315.06, +3.73, +1.20%) is an early mega-cap standout. 

Losses are also modest and paced by the consumer staples sector (-0.3%), which has struggled in December amid some renewed buying interest across growth names. 

On the data front, industrial production increased 0.2% month-over-month in November (Briefing.com consensus 0.1%) following a 0.1% decline in October. The capacity utilization rate was 76.0% (Briefing.com consensus 77.4%) versus 75.9% in October. Total industrial production increased 2.5% yr/yr, while the capacity utilization rate was 3.5 percentage points below its long-run average.

The key takeaway from the report is that the uptick in November was driven entirely by mining output, which offset the absence of growth in manufacturing output and a 0.4% decline in utilities output.

Just released, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index decreased to 89.1 in December (Briefing.com consensus 89.0) from an upwardly revised 92.9 (from 88.7) in November.