LIVE MARKETS-Santa rally stumbles

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SANTA RALLY STUMBLES

The Santa rally looked precarious on Monday as stocks fell broadly, with all three major indexes ending in the red. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC and Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI each fell around 0.5% while the S&P 500 .SPX dropped 0.35%.

Materials .SPLRCM was the worst-performing S&P 500 sector as gold and silver tumbled. That came after exchanges raised margins to trade precious metals.

Silver XAG= is down more than 8% on Monday, following a sudden 10% surge on Friday. Gold XAU= is off more than 4%, while platinum XPT= dropped 14%.

Profit taking was a factor behind weakness on Monday, said Louis Navellier, chief investment officer at Navellier & Associates.

“Some investors had anticipated profit taking here (in basic materials), but expected it to occur after year-end to postpone tax liabilities,” Navellier said in a report.

As for the broader stocks outlook, Navellier notes that there is still time to recover from this week’s rough start. “The S&P is still above 6,900, a new high remains a real possibility before the Wednesday close, and a 16.5% year is nothing to complain about.”

Here is Monday’s closing market snapshot:

(Karen Brettell)

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