‘Santa Claus rally’ is here — but can the stock market avoid the ‘Grinch pinch’?

The Dow closed slightly higher on Thursday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed lower in the second day of a so-called Santa Claus rally period.

The so-called Santa Claus rally could get off to a late start this year. But better late than never. A team of strategists at Ned Davis Research pointed out that stocks have struggled ahead of the start of the “Santa Claus rally” period, which begins on Tuesday.