What Happened in the Stock Market Today

Stocks began the day in positive territory thanks to optimism over the Senate's passage of a tax bill, but declined over the length of the session, ultimately ending with mixed results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) closed at a record high, but the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) lost some ground.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Some of the recent trends in the market continued today, with retail and financial stocks leading the market and the sell-off in technology shares continuing. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEMKT: XRT), up 13% since the first week of November, rose 2.3%.

Source: Fool.com