YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM] : Stocks chopped along in a relatively narrow range until economic bellwether General Electric (GE 15.96, -1.43) had its credit outlook lowered late in the session. The announcement induced selling pressure, which took the stock market to a loss of 3.0% before it finished with a loss of 2.1%.

Shares of General Electric fell to a multiweek low after Standard & Poor's lowered the company's credit outlook to Negative from Stable, which is not the same as an actual downgrade. GE is one of only a handful of companies to carry a coveted AAA rating. However, Standard & Poor's did indicate there is a one-in-three possibility of a downgrade within the next two years. General Electric traded as a laggard, weighing on the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Exxon Mobil (XOM 76.90, -4.16), which also carries a AAA credit rating, was a laggard, too. Exxon's stock dropped markedly as crude futures contracts plunged amid ongoing demand concerns. Integrated oil companies finished the session 5.9%, while oil and gas drillers dropped 11.3%.

Though OPEC announced yesterday production cuts intended to bolster prices by realigning supply with demand, oil prices have gone on the slide this week. January crude fell as much as 10.2% to take out a multiyear low of $35.98 per barrel before settling at $36.74 per barrel; contracts for January delivery expire after tomorrow's close. Upon the expiration of the January contracts, February will become the front month. February crude closed at $42.06, down 5.7%.

Materials (-4.0%) also traded with weakness as Freeport McMoRan (FCX 23.32, -2.69) dropped more than 10%. Its loss followed weakness in metals.

February gold slipped $7.90 to settle at $860.60 per ounce, while and March silver shed $0.30 to settle at $11.12 per ounce. Copper was also down with March contracts slipping $0.072 to $1.302 per ounce.

Weakness in commodities was exacerbated by a resurgent dollar. The U.S. dollar was able to snap its recent losing streak by climbing 0.7% this session. It is still down 5.0% for the week, though, as currency traders assess the country's extraordinary spending plans and weak economic conditions.

Though a stronger dollar bodes well for U.S. consumers, it can dampen earnings prospects from multinational companies depending on foreign markets for growth. Nike (NKE 52.69, +2.05) and FedEx (FDX 62.60, -1.37), both global companies, posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings results ahead of the opening bell. Their results have been helped by international markets, but economic headwinds will challenge their performance in the future.

As such, President-elect Obama is reportedly planning an $850 billion economic stimulus plan that would be phased in over the next couple of years.

The current White House administration is reportedly planning to provide automakers with aid before Dec. 25. Treasury Secretary Paulson will take the lead in the planning, but details for the plan remain unknown.  Separate reports indicated General Motors (GM 3.66, -0.71) and Chrysler reopened merger talks, but GM later denied the claim.

In economic Weekly initial jobless claims and continuing claims were down a bit from the prior week, and essentially in-line with economists' expectations. Claims totaled 554,000 and 4.38 million, respectively. The claims numbers can be considered relatively positive since they didn't surpass the estimated levels, which has been the case in previous weeks, but the decrease may suggest some workers have exhausted their jobless benefits since companies continue laying off workers. DJ30 -219.35 NASDAQ -26.94 SP500 -19.08 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1747/1043/2.06 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1799/1311/1.38 bln