Reply #7: Santa may skip Wall Street this year

[ozymandius]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sing it with us: "You needn't watch out. You might as well cry. You might as well pout I'm telling you why. Santa Claus ain't coming to town."

Somehow it's not as catchy as the original. But it could be accurate this year.

A year-end rally, which has become something of a rite on Wall Street, could be off the table this year due to the myriad woes investors are facing. From the credit crisis to concerns that consumer spending is flagging, there's little incentive for Santa to touch down this year.

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But hey, there are some reasons why Wall Street might see a typically upbeat December and an end of the year "Santa Claus" rally.

"An end of the year run is not necessarily off the table," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. He said that Wall Street still needs to work its way through a lot on the financial side. Yet, the broad selloff of recent weeks may have primed stocks for a bigger bounce back, particularly in the areas of the market that are unaffected by the credit market mess.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/20/markets/markets_santa/index.htm