The next two shortened weeks should feature some attempts to save the year for bulls and those portfolio managers seeking bonuses, even if they’re strangely calculated.

Trading this day started out on the rocky side but as trading neared the close, Da Boyz sensed some selling exhaustion.

They probed markets with buy programs and finding little resistance ramped markets higher over the last 20 minutes of trading.

Trading should start to see less and less liquidity as the holidays approach. Even bulls have to pay attention to conditions. They’ve left a few privates in foxholes with “programmed” orders to defend the tape and positions while officers retreat to such confines as the Grenadines and Hamptons.

Once again bulls totally ignored another crappy economic data report this time featuring the Chicago Fed National Activity Index which fell to -0.30 vs 15 expected & prior -.017. I guess that’s just another “transitory” data point once again.

Market sectors moving higher included: S&P 500 (SPY), Dow (DIA), Tech (QQQ), Healthcare (XLV), Financials (XLF), Small Caps (IWM), Industrials (XLI), REITs (IYR), Materials (XLB), Germany (EWG), India (EPI), Philippines (EPHE), Indonesia (IDX), Euro (FXE), Gold (GLD), Gold Stocks (GDX), Silver (SLV) and not much else. 

Market sectors moving lower included: Oil & Gas Exploration & Producers (XOP), Hedged Europe (HEDJ), Spain (EWP), UK (EWU), Emerging Markets (EEM), Japan (EWJ), Hedged Japan (DXJ), China (FXI), South Korea (EWY), Taiwan (EWT), Russia (RSX), Brazil (EWZ), Junk Bonds (HYG), Canada (EWC), Oil (USO) and a mixed bag of everything else.

The top ETF daily market movers by percentage change in volume whether rising or falling is available daily.

Volume fell significantly from Friday’s mega-volume and breadth per the WSJ was positive.

It’s understandable we’d get a bounce from bulls who are anxious to keep their clients in the game. After all they must protect their own revenue stream.

Believe it or not there is plenty of economic data due this week as if anyone cares. Its obvious bulls will cheer and cherry-pick any good news.

Data includes:

GDP, FHFA Home Price Index, Existing Home Sales, Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (Tuesday);

Durable Goods Orders, Personal Income & Spending, New Home Sales, Consumer Sentiment, EIA Petroleum Status Report (Wednesday);

Jobless Claims and Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index (Thursday).

Remember it’s only a half day of trading Thursday.

Let’s see what happens.