A heavy dose of data has not really done anything to prop them back up. Durable goods orders for November fell 1.3%, which is worse than the 1.1% decline that had been generally expected among economists polled by Briefing.com. The worse-than-expected reading comes after overall orders for October fell 3.1%. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders increased 2.4% in November. They were widely expected to increase by just 0.8% after they fell 1.9% in the prior month. Personal income for November increased 0.3% while spending increased 0.4%. Increases of 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively, had been expected. Personal income in the prior month had increased 0.4% while spending had increased 0.7% in the same time. Initial jobless claims for the week ended December 18 totaled 420,000, which is in step with the 424,000 initial claims that had been expected. The latest initial claims tally is down just 3,000 from the prior week. Meanwhile, continuing claims fell 103,000 from the prior week.