Whether celestial bodies were created on day four of Creation Week (Gen. 1:14-19) or simply unveiled then, an observer on earth would visually experience no difference at all, hence, God's textual description could be identical either way.
Therefore, the record of day four provides no compulsion to think "created" (ex nihilo) in Genesis 1:16 when the verb (asah)is allowed its contextual force.
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As I look again at the context I notice asah ("made") used of the firmament in Genesis 1:6-8: "Then God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven."
The firmament was "made" (fashioned) as a result of shifting the location of the water vapor up into the atmosphere. It strikes me how the text emphasizes the location designated for the celestial bodies to shine--in this firmament. "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so" (vv 14,15). Therefore, the context focuses the intent of "preparing/making" the sun, moon and stars as light bearers in the firmament, i.e., the observable sky .
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