The major US in indices close lower as the end of year approaches. The so-called Santa Claus rally which encompasses the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year is in day number three with two days ago to the end of the year. While three major indices are lower so far.

Today the Dow Industrial Average fell -1.1%. The S&P index fell -1.2% and the NASDAQ index fell -1.35%. For the Santa Claus rally, the Dow Industrial Average down -0.48%. The S&P is down -1.09% and the NASDAQ is down -2.56%.

Apple shares traded to new 52 week lows.

Amazon is also trading at new 52 week lows and trades at the lowest level since March 2020 when the stock traded to $81.30. The low today reached just above that level at $81.69. Breaking $81.30 would take the price to the lowest level since March 2019.

Google shares traded as low as $85.90. The low for the year reached $82.98 back on November 3rd.

In other markets today:

• Spot gold is trading down $8.67 or -0.48% at $1804.40
• spot silver is down $0.49 or -2.05% at $23.52
• WTI crude oil is down $0.89 at $78.64
• Bitcoin is trading at $16,579. After trading as high as $16,772 and as low as $16,559

In the FX market, the NZD is ending the day as the strongest of the major currencies. The AUD was also stronger just behind the NZD in the race for the strongest, but gave back a lot of the gains in the US session. The JPY is ending as the weakest of the majors followed by the CAD. The USD was weaker at the start of the day, but is closing more higher than lower with gains vs the EUR, JPY, CAD, and declines vs the NZD and the AUD. The greenback was unchanged vs the GBP and CHF.

• S&P closed down -55.86 points or -1.44% at 3822.59
• Nasdaq closed down -233.24 points or -2.18% at 10476.13
• Dow closed down -348.28 points or -1.04% at 33028.21
• Russell 2000 closed down -22.85 points or -1.29% at 1754.08

The markets were spooked initially by comments from legendary investor David Tepper who spoke more bearish about the stocks markets given the Fed and other central bank hawkish views on rates. When the GDP data for the 3Q came out better than expected with higher inflation it helped add to the bearish bias pre-market.

The good news, however, is things could have been worse. Intraday, the

• Dow was down -803.06 points at the low.
• S&P was down -113.96 points at the low
• NASDAQ was down -396.05 at session lows

Tomorrow the stock market will have full day of trading but it will be closed on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday (which falls on a Sunday this year).