The third day after the Fed announcement and investors are still digesting the impact of the end of bond buying and the start of new rate hikes resulting in another day of losses in all three indexes, and with Pfizer forecasting an extension of the pandemic, the cyclical Dow stocks got hit particularly hard.  The Omicron news was also not good with the new variant now determined to be 5 times more contagious than the already super-contagious delta, and the vaccines being less effective against it.  It all added up to more uncertainty than is usual for this already uncertain market.  But chin up.  This happens practically every day now.  One day there is optimism, the next fear.  Volume was way up due to options expirations so Monday will tell the true story. 

Fri  December 17, 2021  5:59 PM

S&P 500 ends down after mostly negative week

By Shreyashi Sanyal and Noel Randewich

DJ: 35,897.64  -29.79         NAS: 15,180.43  -385.15        S&P: 4,668.67  -41.18      12/16

DJ: 35,365.44  -532.20       NAS: 15,169.68  -10.75          S&P: 4,620.64  -48.03      12/17

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street finished mostly lower on Friday, weighed down by Big Tech as investors digested the Federal Reserve's decision to end its pandemic-era stimulus faster.  All three main U.S. stock indexes ended with a decline for the week after the Fed on Wednesday signaled three quarter-percentage-point interest rate hikes by the end of 2022 to combat surging inflation.  Apple (AAPL.O), Microsoft  (MSFT.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) slipped for much of the session, weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.  The S&P 500 growth index (.IGX) and value index (.IVX) both lost ground.

Adding to uncertainty, Pfizer (PFE.N) said on Friday the pandemic could extend through next year. European countries geared up for further travel and social restrictions and a study warned that the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant was five times more likely to reinfect people than its predecessor, Delta. read more 

Traders also pointed to year-end tax selling and the simultaneous expiration of stock options, stock index futures and index options contracts - known as triple witching - as potential causes for volatility.  "It's a big options expiration day," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "And now you draw on top of that some Omicron, and you've got volatility, and I think it creates a lot of uncertainty amongst investors. Where are you going to position for the end of the year?" Heavyweight growth stocks including Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Microsoft have outperformed the broader market in 2021, while the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index (.SOX) has surged about 35%. The benchmark S&P 500 index gained around 23% in the same period. 

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 531.08 points, or 1.48%, to 35,366.56, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 48.12 points, or 1.03%, to 4,620.55, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 10.75 points, or 0.07%, to 15,169.68.  U.S. stocks have reversed all of their gains from Wednesday, when markets welcomed the Federal Reserve's commitment to tackle rising inflation with faster bond tapering and interest rate hikes next year.

Oracle (ORCL.N) tumbled after the Wall Street Journal reported the enterprise software maker is in talks to buy electronic medical records company Cerner (CERN.O) in a deal that could be valued at $30 billion. Shares of Cerner surged. read more  FedEx Corp (FDX.N) rose after the delivery firm reinstated its original fiscal 2022 forecast on Thursday, even as persistent labor woes chipped away profits. read more 

Note: Per the CBOE, volume was very high at 18.1 billion, no doubt due to options expirations.