Wall Street Week Ahead: Investors hope for 'Santa Claus' rally as stocks lose steam

With December so far delivering Scrooge-like returns in an otherwise stellar year for US stocks, investors hope the tail end of 2024 offers some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds.

The benchmark S&P 500 is up more than 24 per cent for 2024, even after a major stumble this week, and Wall Street has historically often enjoyed a strong annual close.

Since 1969, the last five trading days of the year combined with the first two of the following year have yielded an average S&P 500 gain of 1.3 per cent, a period known as the “Santa Claus Rally,” according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

But this year, there are signs Santa Claus may disappoint.

The S&P 500 on Wednesday suffered its biggest one-day drop since August after the Federal Reserve caught investors off guard by signalling fewer-than-expected interest rate cuts in 2025.

The market also looks less healthy beneath the surface: Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are in negative territory for December, while the equal-weight S&P 500, a proxy for the average index stock, is down seven per cent.

Another worry for stocks as the year winds down is rising Treasury yields, said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at asset manager Miller Tabak. Benchmark 10-year yields hit 4.55 per cent on Thursday following the Fed meeting, their highest level in over six months.

With the S&P 500 trading at 21.6 times forward earnings estimates, well above its 15.8 historical average, according to LSEG Datastream, that jump in yields will put more pressure on equity valuations.

“We’re ending the year with people finally facing the reality that the stock market is extremely expensive and the Fed is not going to be as accommodative as they had been thinking,” Maley said.

Still, this week’s pullback could be positive because it eliminated some of the frothy sentiment in equities, “setting up the market for a rebound,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services. “If there is further follow through on the downside, that could be a little bit more dangerous to the bullish trend.”

The Santa Claus period, when combined with the following first five trading days of January and the performance of January overall, is a harbinger for the year: when those three indicators are positive, the year has ended higher more than 90 per cent of the time in the past 50 years, according to the Almanac.

“We recommend waiting for support to be established and for momentum to improve before stepping up to buy the dip,” Turnquist said in a note following Wednesday’s selloff.