Monday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Fall On Thin Holiday Trading As Investors Take Profits

U.S. stocks fell in light trading on Monday as traders either waited on the sidelines or took profits from big gains generated by the December rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 182.33 points to 28,462.93 while the S&P 500 fell 18.63 points to 3,221.39 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 60.62 points to 8952.90.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 2.53 billion shares with 1,189 issues advancing, 94 setting new highs, and 1,748 declining, with 14 setting new lows.

Active movers were led by NIO Inc. (NIO), General Electric (GE) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Monday that a phase one trade deal with Beijing has been completed.

“That’s a done deal. Put that one in the bag,” Navarro told Fox News.

Earlier Monday, the South China Morning Post reported Vice Premier Liu He, China’s top trade negotiator, will visit Washington this week to sign the trade deal with the U.S.

“This whole week’s going to be slow, so I wouldn’t attribute any day’s movements or any movements this week to anything in particular,” said Jeff Mills, chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust. “The market is in an interesting spot. We’ve run up quite a bit. Technically the market is overbought.”

Apple (AAPL), one of the top performers on the Dow, has soared almost 85% year to date. Wedbush Securties’ technology and software analyst Dan Ives said in a note on Monday that he expects 2020 will be the year of the "5G Super Cycle," with Apple will be the "clear winner" in 5G.

Shares of China-based electric-vehicle maker Nio (NIO) surged almost 54% on Monday after it reported a loss for the third quarter that narrowed more than expected while revenue and vehicle deliveries soared.

Nestle (NSRGY) said on Monday it had completed a $20.7 billion share repurchase program and plans to launch a new buyback for the same amount beginning next year.

Traders also mulled some U.S. economic data. Pending home sales rose by 1.2% in November, the National Association of Realtors reported. Economists had expected pending sales to climb by 1.1%.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business survey showed activity is gradually improving. In December, the Chicago business barometer advanced by 2.6 points to 48.8, a four-month high. However, business sentiment slipped by 1.2 points to 46.2 in the fourth quarter, the lowest quarterly level since the second quarter of 2009.

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $63.19 billion in November versus expectations of a deficit of $68.75 billion.

"Exports of goods for November were $136.4 billion, $900 million more than October exports," the U.S. Census Bureau said. "Imports of goods for November were $199.6 billion, $2.7 billion less than October imports."

Also, wholesale inventories remained unchanged in November.

Overnight in Asia, markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei-225 dropped 0.76% while China’s Shanghai Composite surged 1.16% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.33%.

In Europe markets traded lower, with Britain’s FTSE-100 down 0.76%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.66% and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.91%.

Crude oil futures fell 0.16% at $61.62 per barrel and Brent crude slipped 0.06% at $66.63. Gold futures slipped 0.01%.

The euro gained 0.23% at $1.1201 while the pound sterling rose 0.18% at $1.3104.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 1.12% to 1.895% while yield on the 30-year Treasury gained 1.38% to 2.343%.