The Santa Rally didn’t show up, but that’s not necessarily bad news

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Rocky trading week
the stocks of the United States rose on Friday but still ended the week lower. The S&P 500 Energy sector bucked the trend, and is up more than 3% for the week. Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Monday. South Korea’s Kospi jumped nearly 2% in the middle continued political uncertainty. The CSI 300 of China fell around 0.6% even as the Caixin services purchasing manager index in December it expanded at its fastest pace in seven months.

The Boeing year of reconstruction
Boeing it has not posted a yearly profit since 2018, which saw the first of two fatalities crashes of their 737 Maxes which killed 346 people. A year ago, an unused emergency exit door he cleared the air from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. New CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started in the first job in August, is in charge of ensuring that Boeing can increase production and maintain quality. Here we go how are you doing.

Microsoft invests heavily in data centers
Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on building data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads, the company said on Friday blog post. More than half of the planned spending on AI infrastructure will take place in the United States, Microsoft vice president and president Brad Smith wrote. Microsoft’s 2025 fiscal year ends in June.

Dry the vacuum cleaner contest?
Shares of robot vacuum cleaner company Roborock jumped more than 3% on Monday after revealing a new model which comes with a folding arm to remove socks and other obstacles. Its appendix is ​​powered by artificial intelligence developed by the company, which has a laboratory in Shanghai and a research institute in Shenzhen.

[PRO] Eyes on December jobs report
Big chunks of economic data this week there are minutes for the US Federal Reserve’s December meeting on Wednesday and the December jobs report on Friday. While it is not likely to change the Fed’s interest rate decision at its January meeting, they could provide more clarity on the central bank’s moves in 2025.

On Friday, the S&P 500 added 1.26%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.77%. Still, losses from previous trading sessions — before Friday, the S&P and Nasdaq were on a five-day losing streak — were too heavy to bear. For the week, the S&P declined 0.48%, the Dow lost 0.60% and the Nasdaq retreated 0.51%.

This means the so-called Santa Claus Rally, a phenomenon in which stocks rise during the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the following year, has not fallen in the markets this year .

The absence of Santa Claus this year could indicate a tougher time for stocks As the late Yale Hirsch, founder of the The Stock Trader’s Almanac in 1968, he said“If Santa doesn’t call, bears can come to Broad and Wall.”

That said, putting too much faith in such signs can be the adult equivalent of believing it’s really Santa putting a PlayStation under the tree because we were nice kids.

And as we grow older and understand that it was money that generated us gifts, we have to remember that the stock market is a bet on how much money companies can bring.

On that front, UBS” David Lefkowitz, the bank’s head of investment in American stocks, feels optimistic. “We expect the bull market to continue with the S&P 500 reaching 6,600 by the end of the year, mainly driven by a healthy growth of 9% profit,” Lefkowitz wrote in a recent note. His price target implies about 11% upside from Friday’s close.

Now, this is such a precious gift that no one, real or imaginary, could give.

— CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Pia Singh, Sean Conlon, Jesse Pound and Sarah Min contributed to this report.