Stock Market Cools Off

The stock market took a breather on Thursday after three days of strong gains. The Dow ticked downward by a fraction of a point to to 35,754, while the S&P 500 fell 33 points to 4,677 and the Nasdaq fell 269 points to 15,517. Generally, stocks that rely on a strong reopening of the economy—airlines and cruise lines, for example—were down for the day, notes CNBC. Among other things, investors were digesting emerging news about the omicron variant and waiting for the monthly inflation report on Wednesday. The Fed's upcoming meeting on Dec. 14-15 also factored in. "I think it’ll be very choppy the rest of the year,” Oanda analyst Edward Moya tells the Wall Street Journal. (More stock market stories.)