S&P 500 and Nasdaq experienced hurdles, with buyers unable to sustain momentum beyond the 6,850s zone. This premarket scenario gave room for shorting opportunities, urging caution in trading decisions. On an opex, data-sparse day during the final full week of the year, book balancing is prudent, avoiding rash trades. An uptick before the closing bell was observed, a pattern seen often except for pre-Wednesday\u2019s market movement.<\/p>\n
Gold remains below $4,350 as the US Treasury bond yield rises, poised for modest weekly gains with markets leading into holiday mode. The EUR\/USD pair rebounds above 1.1730, helped by a bullish Wall Street open, challenging the US Dollar’s revival. GBP\/USD stabilises below 1.3400, reflecting on the Bank of England\u2019s small rate cut amidst improving risk sentiment.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin edges above $88,000 amid a bearish market, with Ethereum and XRP also recovering. XRP aims for a breakout above $2.00 as ETFs report significant inflows, indicating institutional interest. Meanwhile, November\u2019s inflation data alone may not shift Federal Reserve policy, but it influences market expectations amidst price cooling.<\/p>\n
We see the S&P 500 has now failed to close above the 6,850 level three times this week, a sign that buying pressure is exhausted. With institutional players closing their books for the year, average daily trading volumes have already declined by 15% compared to the November average. This suggests that any upward moves will lack the conviction needed to break through significant resistance.<\/p>\n
As we head into the holiday-shortened weeks, we expect thin markets could lead to sharp moves on little news. The Volatility Index (VIX) is currently sitting near 14, a level that historically precedes short-term spikes in volatility, especially during low-volume periods like late December. This presents an opportunity to consider strategies that benefit from a sudden increase in market chop, such as buying puts on major indices.<\/p>\n
Many traders are anticipating a “Santa Claus Rally,” which has historically delivered an average gain of 1.3% for the S&P 500 in the final days of December and the first two of January. However, given the current technical resistance and institutional pullback, we believe any rally will likely be muted. Betting against a strong year-end melt-up by using credit spreads or selling call options on overextended tech names could be a prudent approach.<\/p>\n
Looking at the broader market, the flight to safety is becoming more apparent and supports a cautious stance. The persistent strength in gold, which is consolidating near $4,350 an ounce, shows that investors are hedging their bets against market turbulence. At the same time, Bitcoin\u2019s struggle to hold the $88,000 level, despite recent ETF inflows, indicates that even riskier assets are facing significant headwinds.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S&P 500 stalls, gold holds, crypto recovers; cautious trading urged as holidays, low data volume weigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}