It’s like the “morning after” a big night on the town when enthusiasm was high but you had reality to deal with next.

Let’s turn back the clock to the pre and post Yellen rally.

Bulls seemed to get exactly what they wanted, a slight increase in the interest rate along with “dovish” language. So markets ran higher but the payback came on Thursday when reality set in once again.

And, what realities might that be you wonder? Weak economic data continues to remain just that—weak. Janet’s fairy tale Wednesday remains challenged by realties economic growth is not “solid” and the fantasy that bad economic data isn’t “transitory” but’s been with us most of the past year.

Once again Thursday provided the Current Account back to recession levels -$127 billion vs prior – $111 billion; Philly Fed Survey -5.9 vs prior 1.9 and Leading Indicators 0.4% vs prior 0.6%. Even data earlier this week, month and year continue to weaken overall.

More “transitory” oil prices continued to slide Thursday along negative news that iPhone sales may decline given weak data from suppliers and so forth. 

Headline stock indexes in the U.S. continued to post small gains on the week but Yellen’s gains were wiped out. As for the Santa rally, the old man’s got time but not much.

Market sectors moving higher included: Treasury Bonds (TLT), Volatility (VIX) and the Dollar (UUP).

Market sectors moving lower included: Everything else.

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

Below is the “Christmas-y” view from Finviz view of gains (leveraged short issues) and losses. 

Volume remained high but breadth per the WSJ turned highly negative once more.

I’ll eliminate some charts since Friday’s action holds the key to what’s next. Naturally we’ll have liquidity start to wind down the next two shortened weeks. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of manipulation possible as there are bonuses on the line for all portfolio managers. With volume lower it’s easier for da boyz to move it their way.