It’s quite a lousy start to the year: for the second session in a row, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted a triple-digit decline and the culprit remains the same. The price of crude oil dropped to another multi-year low, at one point, dropping below $48 per barrel. Amid economic concerns and lower gas prices, precious metals are making a sizable rally. Gold prices are back above the $1,200-level and are poised to head higher. Volatility continues to run rampant, and the domestic economic data released this morning did not help to calm any investor fears.

For the fourth month in a row, factory orders contracted in November; down by 0.7% with negative growth in all major categories. Durables orders declined by 0.9% in the month, revised from a -0.7% in the initial reading which was posted just before Christmas. Non-durable goods reflected weakness for food and petroleum products, declining by 0.5% in the month. Transportation goods were especially weak, down by 1.3% and reflect a month-over-month decline in the orders of defense aircraft. Nondefense capital goods show one of the few gains for the month, but only just barely at +0.1%. When civilian aircraft orders are excluded from this reading, it provides a more realistic core reading for the industrial economy and in November, it dropped by 0.5% for the third month of straight declines. Weakness in orders and shipments, however, has yet to lead to an unwanted build for inventories which is a plus for manufacturers in the near-term. Ultimately, this report supports the notion that November’s surprising 1.1% surge in the manufacturing component may actually be an outlier reading after all.

ISM’s non-manufacturing, or services, purchasing manager’s index (PMI) dropped to 56.2 in December, which was substantially lower than November’s abnormally strong reading of 59.3. The slowdown could be pinned on the business activity component, which dropped by 7.2 points to 57.2 and new orders which dropped by 2.5 points to 58.9. However, there was respectable strength in employment, which was only slightly lower at 56.0. Prices paid, which majorly reflected lower fuel costs, declined by 4.9 points to 49.5 – this is the first sub-50 reading for the prices component since September 2009. Despite the apparent slowdown, the signals provided in the details of the report are still relatively healthy: among individual industries surveyed, 12 of 18 reported monthly growth. December’s two leaders, retail and accommodation & food services, specifically point to consumer strength during the holiday season.