The stock market struggled under broad selling interest on the final session of this holiday-shortened week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, down more than 500 points at its low, settled 333 points below yesterday's close. The S&P 500 registered a 1.1% decline and the Nasdaq Composite closed 1.5% lower than yesterday.

The major indices still logged gains this week despite today's sell-off. The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher than last Friday and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.8% higher than last week. 

Stocks from all areas of the market participated in the retreat, which was driven by some profit-taking activity as 2025 approaches. 28 of the 30 Dow components fell and all 11 S&P 500 sectors settled in the red. The energy sector was the top performer, closing fractionally lower, followed by utilities, which declined 0.3%.

Outsized declines in many mega caps were influential in overall performance, leading the heavily-weighted consumer discretionary (-1.9%), information technology (-1.5%), and communication services (-1.1%) sectors to close at the bottom of the pack. NVIDIA (NVDA 137.09, -2.84, -2.0%), Apple (AAPL 255.65, -3.37, -1.3%), Amazon.com (AMZN 223.79, -3.26, -1.4%), and Alphabet (GOOG 194.07, -3.03, -1.5%) were among the standouts in that regard.

The only other sector that declined 1.0% was real estate, clipped by rising rates. The 10-yr yield settled four basis points higher at 4.62% and the 2-yr yield settled unchanged at 4.33%. 

Today's retreat coincided with a jump in the CBOE Volatility Index (16.10, +1.37, +9.3%) as investors have turned to the options market to hedge portfolios for increased volatility over the next 30 days, which some think could be accented with more concerted efforts to take capital gains.

• Nasdaq Composite: +31.4% YTD
• S&P 500: +22.7% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +14.1% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +12.8% YTD
• Russell 2000: +10.7% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• November Adv. Intl. Trade in Goods -$102.9 bln; Prior was revised to -$98.3 bln from -$99.1 bln
• November Adv. Retail Inventories 0.3%; Prior was revised to 0.2% from 0.1%
• November Adv. Wholesale Inventories -0.2%; Prior was revised to 0.1% from 0.2%

Looking ahead to Monday, market participants will receive the following economic data: December Chicago PMI (prior 40.2) at 9:45 a.m. ET; November Pending Home Sales (prior 2.0%) at 10:00 a.m. ET.