Bulls are hoping Santa puts a bow 🅘on the strides the stock markeꦗt has made so far in 2024.

Wall Street is eager for a so-called Santa Claus rally to propel the S&P 500—up about 25% this year through Monday's close—to new highs. According to Wall Street lore, the stock market consistently rises during the final five trading days of theꦑ year and the first two sessions of th෴e next. This year, that stretch starts today.

This i𝔍s a period when corporate news slows, resulting in relatively stable values for companies, said Paul Hickey, cofounder of Bespoke Investment Group, while money flows into the market. Many people invest bonuses and make trades to minimize taxes, Hickey said.

The market is well poised to rally this year, said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, despite 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:the Dow Jones Industrial Ave🃏rage recently falling for several days running and other indexes faltering. (The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow all 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:finished last week lower, then rose 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:yesterday.)

There is precedent for weakness in the early part of December, Detrick said, and a range of other reasons—including past trading history around election years and Dece🐷mbers broadly—for optimism.

"Should you still believe in Santa?” Detrick wrote in a blog post. “We think so.”

Santa has a track record of delivering for Wall Street at the tail-end of Christmas. From the fifth last trading day of the year through the second session of the next year, the S&P rallied 76% of the time from 1999 on, according to Carson Group's analysis. Gains amounted to an average of 1.7% when there was a rally, the analysis shows.

"It’s a modest rally," said the Almanac's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Hirsch, whose father coined the "Santa Claus Rally" phrase. "But when it doesn't appear, that means that those traders are nervous."

Some significant economic downturns have emerged after st🌳ocks stumbled during these seven sessions, analysts say.

Still, every rule of thumb has exceptions. Last year, the S&P dipped 0.9% during this period—even as the index turned it around and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:hit a record high in early December.

This article was first published on Dec. 21. It has been updated to reflect new stock-market data.