With No Santa, Traders Have No Fear of Missing Out

Investors were hopeful early on Tuesday morning, as futures were indicated higher on news of restarting travel in China, but the optimism didn't last long. Stocks quickly faded, bounced back to the opening highs, and then faded again. The Dow Jones managed to close with minor gains, but big-cap technology was hit hard again as the Nasdaq 100/Invesco fund  (QQQ)  lost 1.2%.

The largest stock in the market, Apple (AAPL) , hit a new 12-month low, and breadth was around 3,300 gainers to 5,100 decliners. It was miserable action for many stocks, with new 12-month lows expanding to nearly 600 names. Some of the blame for this action goes to tax loss selling, and some of it goes to investors that want to dump some losers and start the market with a clean sheet.

The action was thin and random. As I've discussed, the action this week is not driven by fundamentals or technical conditions. It is mostly just position moves and some hopeful traders trying to catch a counter-trend bounce.

There are few value buyers interested in trying to fish the market this week, and there definitely isn't any positive momentum for traders to chase. There are currently no signs of a holiday rally, and without Santa, there is no fear of missing out. No one is going to worry about missing out when the trading action is this miserable.

We'll see if traders can generate some better action before the new year, but I suspect that many of them are just going to turn off their computers and wait until next year before they do much. Have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow.