The Santa rally wasn’t destined to be faded or shorted as the S&P 500 is now nearly flat on the year.

There’s just next week to take us home to win or lose the year for portfolio manager bonuses.

As you may or may not know bonuses can be calculated in a variety of ways. For instance, how a manager performs relative to a benchmark like the S&P, the Dow or any combination of other factors to lengthy to list here.

Economic data was mixed as Durable Goods Orders were only flat at 0.0% but important Core Capital Goods Orders fell to -0.04%. Personal Income & Spending rose 0.03% overall; New Home Sales rose to 490K after adjustments for prior data fell to 470K from 495K allowing for headline “beat” (comical?); and, Consumer Sentiment rose to 92.6 vs prior 91.8.What got the bulls energized was a rally in crude oil as a large inventory drawdown won the day: -5.9 million bbls vs 4.8 million bbls.

Again leading the way higher was the beaten down energy sector sporting good gains. Nevertheless, the sector is just off support we’ve highlighted the past year.

Barring other news, we’ll be taking a holiday, so in the absence of our snarky comments, play nice!

Market sectors moving higher included: Most sectors.

Market sectors moving lower included: Volatility (VIX), Treasury Bonds (TLT) and not much else.

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

Volume was higher and breadth per the WSJ was positive.

As I indicated Monday there’s more economic data due on Wednesday including: Durable Goods Orders; Personal Income & Spending; New Home Sales and Consumer Sentiment.

That should then end my posting for the week and enjoy family and friends. But, that said, you never know when the forces of darkness will cause a reappearance.

Let’s see what happens.