Bulls Wish for a ‘Santa Claus Rally’ as 2024 Comes to a Close | Global News Avenue

Bulls are hoping Santa Claus will salute the stock market’s progress so far in 2024.

Wall Street longs for a so-called santa claus rally Pushing the S&P 500 (up about 24% this year as of Friday’s close) to new highs. According to Wall Street lore, the stock market has continued to rise over the last five trading days of this year and the first two trading days of next year.

Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, said this is a time of slowdown in corporate news, resulting in relatively stable business values ​​while money flows into the market. Hickey said many people invest their winnings and trade them to minimize taxes.

Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, said the market is expected to rebound this year, although The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen recently Running for several days, other indicators faltered. (The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow all Close lower for the week.)

Detrick said there is precedent for weakness in early December, and there is optimism for a range of other reasons, including an election year and past trading history around December.

“Should you still believe in Santa Claus?” Detrick wrote in a blog post. “We think so.”

Santa Claus has a track record of delivering gifts to Wall Street at the end of Christmas. Since 1999, the S&P has risen 76% of the time from the fifth to last trading day of the year to the second trading day of the following year, according to analysis by the Carson Group. The analysis shows that the average gain when rising is 1.7%.

“This is a modest rebound,” almanac Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Hirsch, whose father coined the phrase “Santa Claus Rally.” “But if it doesn’t show up, that means those traders are nervous.”

Analysts say the seven-session plunge follows some serious economic downturns.

Still, there are exceptions to every rule of thumb. Last year, the S&P fell 0.9% during the period, although the index turned things around, record high Early December.