YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Light news flow and a poor turnout left stocks to trade in lackluster fashion for most of the session, but some late pressure caused stocks to close at session lows and conclude the year on a weak note. Still, stocks settled only slightly below their 52-week highs with strong gains for the year.

As has been the case all week, participants had few cues for trade this session. Of the few headlines there were, little reaction was made.

The latest dose of data featured initial jobless claims for the week ending December 26. Initial claims fell 22,000 to 432,000, which is less than the 460,000 initial claims that had been expected. It also marked the lowest tally in more than 15 months. However, the dip did come during the week of Christmas.

Meanwhile, continuing claims came in at 4.98 million. That was lower than expected and below 5.00 million for the first time since February.

Participants shrugged off the better-than-expected jobless claims numbers, but gave focus to the dollar, which had offered early support for stocks with a 0.6% overnight loss against competing currencies, but later weighed on stocks as it recovered to finish with a 0.1% gain. The Dollar Index closed the month with a 4.1% gain, but finished the year with a 4.1% loss.

The dollar's doldrums this year helped prop up commodities prices and gave the CRB Commodity Index a 23.5% annual gain. The CRB closed this session with a 0.1% loss, though.

Still, the reflation trade that followed the global economic slowdown earlier this year helped make materials stocks some of this year's best performers -- the materials sector booked a gain of 45.2% this year, although it shed 1.3% this session.

Of the major sectors, tech was the best performer in 2009. Though it quietly shed 1.1% in its latest outing, it still finished the year with a 59.9% gain. Large-cap tech issues helped the Nasdaq Composite advance 43.9% this year to outperform its counterparts with relative ease; the S&P 500 finished the year with a 23.5% gain, while the Dow finished 2009 18.8% higher.

Financials showed strength for most of this session, but buckled when the broader market took a dive in the final hour of trade. They fell 0.4% this session, but were up 14.8% for the year. Though its yearly gain wasn't as impressive as what was accomplished by other sectors, financials finished the year up approximately 250% from their March low.

That spike is attributable to bank stocks, which rallied after liquidity fears faded. Many widely-held bank stocks had fallen below $1 per share during the depths that the stock market saw, but they have since climbed exponentially.

With many market participants looking to lock in such gains, trading volume has been light for the past couple of weeks. End of year holidays have also led to light volume as many trading desks have become lightly staffed.

Since the stock market is closed tomorrow, January 1, to observe New Year's Day, such was also the case this session. Fewer than 700 million shares traded hands on the NYSE this session. That's less than half of this year's average single-session trading volume, which stands close to 1.4 billion shares.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Utilities (-1.5%), Industrials (-1.3%), Materials (-1.3%), Health Care (-1.2%), Consumer Staples (-1.1%), Tech (-1.1%), Telecom (-1.0%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.0%), Energy (-0.9%), Financials (-0.4%)DJ30 -120.46 NASDAQ -22.13 NQ100 -1.0% R2K -1.3% SP400 -1.3% SP500 -11.32 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1026/1.25 bln/1730 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 994/680 mln/2018