QQQ gives up its opening gain and trails SPY as rare-earth and Fed updates arrive

QQQ opened 0.56% above the prior close but ended the 24-hour period down 0.83%. SPY moved from a 0.48% opening gain to a 0.33% loss, leaving QQQ about 0.50 percentage points behind. The EU said China had begun issuing general rare-earth licenses. The December NAHB housing index was 39 versus a 38 estimate, while the Empire State manufacturing index fell to -3.9 from 18.7. Nvidia introduced Nemotron 3 open models, data and libraries. Fed officials John Williams and Susan Collins also discussed the prior week's rate cut.