23Dec2015 Market Close: Markets Melted Up To Session Highs, May Be The Start Of The Santa Claus Rally, WTI Oil Climbed Nicely, Will It Continue?

Written by Gary

Good session for those wishing for a Santa Claus Rally, it may have just started. WTI oil also climbed higher and settled in the high 37’s while the US dollar reversed course and melted back where it started this morning. Although the markets climbed higher, it was a gradual melting up on sometimes anemic volume and stopping just short of the next resistance.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Stocks post pre-holiday gains as bruised oil sees cheer NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. and European stocks pushed higher in pre-holiday trading on Wednesday, helped by energy shares as an unexpected drop in crude inventories lifted beaten-down oil prices.
	Lockheed-Boeing venture orders 20 more Russian rocket engines WASHINGTON (Reuters) – United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co , on Wednesday said it ordered 20 additional RD-180 rocket engines from Russia, on top of 29 engines still being delivered.
	Pentagon: R&D push could spur investment,slow buybacks WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military’s plans to spend up to $15 billion over the next five years on funding research should help encourage U.S. weapons makers to spend more on internal research instead of share buybacks, the Pentagon’s chief arms buyer said.
	Staples says U.S. regulators’ complaint against merger is ‘misguided’ WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Staples Inc accused federal regulators of applying antitrust laws in a “misguided” way to try to block its $6.3 billion merger with smaller office supply retailer Office Depot Inc .
	On Wall Street, oil delivers modest Santa Claus rally (Reuters) – Wall Street rallied for the third straight session on Wednesday, led by sharp gains in energy stocks as a rebound in oil prices boosted sentiment heading into the Christmas holiday.
	Top two Ferrari investors sign pact over 48.8 percent of voting rights MILAN (Reuters) – The top two investors in Ferrari have signed a shareholder pact giving them a total voting power of nearly 50 percent to keep firm grip on the sports car maker after it separates from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles .
	U.S. manufacturing struggles; rising income brightens outlook WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods fell in November and the prior month’s increase was revised sharply lower as the drag on manufacturing from a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector showed little sign of abating.
	Oil up 3 percent after U.S. crude stocks drop, trade thin TORONTO (Reuters) – Oil rose more than 3 percent on Wednesday in thin, pre-holiday trading, buoyed by a surprise drop in U.S. crude inventories, but prices stayed near multi-year lows as global supplies remained abundant and OPEC lowered the demand outlook for its exports.
	Money-go-round fuels buybacks, leaves workers sidelined WATERLOO, Iowa (Reuters) – Matt Happel and Pam Egli are first cousins, part of a sprawling family so big it rents a church hall for Christmas parties.
	“Dash-For-Trash” Melt-Up Erases Post-Fed “Policy Error” Losses The bigger they are… The “Dash For Trash” continues… As The open was another big short squeeze… 2nd biggest short squeeze day in 2 months and 2nd biggest 2-week squeeze in 10 months Bad Breadth-er… The S&P 500 was ramped perfectly into the Green year-to-date… “Mission Accomplished” Small Caps and S&P are back in the green post-FOMC…
	Oil Is Now Cheaper Than Coffee, Milk, & Water While oil may be cheaper… But the rest of these ‘staples’ still taste a lot better. h/t @RichardMeyerDC
	BofAML Fears “Violent” Unwinds As Central Bank ‘Put’ Expires The power of the Central Bank ‘Put’ also shows the risk of its loss, warns BofAML’s global equity derivatives group, implicitly creating a highly unstable and fragile market place. Central banks have had a tremendous impact on financial markets in the last seven years, which is never more apparent than when looking at the world through the volatility lens. As shown in Chart 12, cross-asset volatility reached all-time lows in the summer of 2014, falling even below the 2007 pre-GFC bubble lows, crushed under the weight of unprecedented monetary policy (or in the ECB case, the promise of policy). This is remarkable considering the size of the risk “bubble” created pre-GFC. The result is that risk is not fairly priced based on fundamentals but rather is better explained by investors not wanting to stand in front of central banks as they embark on QE. As Chart 13 shows, when decomposing the 41 factors of risk covering 5 asset classes from our GFSI index into regions, both Europe and Japan (the two regions still actively engaging in QE) are the two regions with the most depressed price of risk. This is despite being the two developed regions with some of the greatest fundamental risk. Unprecedented CB – market co-dependence Central banks have never been more sensitive to financial market conditions as they are today. This hyper-sensitive reaction function has placed huge downward pressure on volatility, and has accentuated local shock behavior as investors have become accust …
	How the Third Avenue Fund Melted Down Investors have taken the Third Avenue meltdown as an ominous signal in junk bonds. In his final hours at the firm, David Barse made a last-ditch effort to sell. It was rejected and he was escorted out of the building.
	U.S. Stocks Rise as Commodities Climb Investors piled into stocks tied to the commodities sector on Wednesday, putting major U.S. indexes on track for their largest weekly gains in about a month.
	Market Extra: British pound’s path in 2016 faces major roadblocks The pound is slumping to the finish line for 2015, which could presage expectations for the currency heading into 2016.
	Bond Report: Treasury yields rise for second day as oil rebound continues Treasury yields rose for a second straight session Wednesday as rebounding oil prices supported U.S. stocks, drawing investors away from government debt.
	Futures Movers: Oil ends sharply higher as U.S. crude inventories decline Oil reaps gains on U.S. export hopes and a big drop in crude inventories.