A barrage of economic reports Tuesday could not derail what appears to be an evolving Santa Claus rally in US stocks. Before the open, a surprisingly strong GDP report of 4.3 percent annualized growth for the third quarter beat expectations of 3.2 percent growth, causing a jump in bond yields that put pressure on stocks initially on worries that the Fed would be less likely to continue cutting the fed funds rate. But dip buying absorbed the morning selling and a later morning report of weaker than expected Consumer Confidence from the Conference Board prompted some investors to factor back a more accommodating Fed, and additional buying emerged to pull the indices well into positive territory. Dow Jones industrial average firmed 0.2 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 0.5 percent. US treasury yields mostly rose and the dollar weakened, while oil prices rose and gold and silver continued to surge into new record highs.

Among sectors, communications and services together with information technology led the day's gains, with consumer staples and health care lagging behind to end in negative territory. AI chipmaker Nvidia was the most actively traded stock, with 172.8 million shares changing hands as they rose 3.1 percent on the day.

Market Reflections track market reaction to the trading day's major events. Economic data, policymaker speeches, and company news are featured in this report as well as key indexes and financial instruments.

Understanding why markets respond as they do is fundamental for an investor. Market Reflections help explain how the day's events, news, and data impact the outlook for the economy and for market prices.