Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Brunch, our Sunday look-ahead to this week's market-moving events, along with the weekend's top news and analysis.
Hello, today is Sunday, December 21st, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. It's the most wonderful time of the year for stock market bulls. Here comes Santa Claus right down Maiden Lane, then left on NASA, heading straight for Wall and Broad.
The Santa Claus rally, the last five trading days of December and the first two of January, is set to kick off on Wednesday, with markets closing early for Christmas Eve and shut on Thursday for Christmas.
Chapter 2: What is the Santa Claus Rally and its historical significance?
Historically, the S&P 500 has been higher 77% of the time during the Santa rally, according to Subutrade. They note that the last two years were negative, but there's never been a third straight down Santa rally time.
Alexander Giuliano, CIO at Resident Wealth Partners, says despite choppy trading over the past six weeks, the backdrop remains strong and the recent valuation pullback is creating opportunities for underinvested bulls. So far in December, the S&P is slightly lower, the NASDAQ is down about 0.25%, and the Dow is up 1%. For the year, the S&P is up 16%, the NASDAQ 21%, and the Dow 13%.
Chapter 3: What are the expectations for the upcoming Q3 GDP report?
The earnings calendar is light, but traders won't be bored. The key data point is the Q3 GDP report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo says while the headline number may be stale, the details matter. They're expecting 3.6% annualized growth, boosted by a pullback in imports. Consumers rebounded strongly in the second half of the year, though construction remains a drag.
In the news this weekend, Bill Ackman floated a novel idea for taking SpaceX public, pitching a merger with Pershing Square Spark that would distribute special investment rights to Tesla shareholders, giving them first crack at a SpaceX IPO, or the option to sell those rights. Ackman called it a way to democratize the IPO process.
Out west, power was restored to most of San Francisco late Saturday after a major outage. Roughly 130,000 customers lost service at the peak, with most restored by late evening. For income investors, Broadcom and Vistra Energy go ex-dividend on Monday.
Chapter 4: How is Bill Ackman proposing to help SpaceX go public?
Both pay out on New Year's Eve. Altria and Philip Morris go ex-dividend on Friday. Altria pays out on January 9th, while Philip Morris has a January 14th payout date. In the Wall Street Research corner, J.P. Morgan picked 11 standout tech stocks for 2026. On the list are Arista, Guidewire, Broadcom, Salesforce, and LendingClub. You can check out the whole list in the story on Seeking Alpha.
And with the holidays approaching, we take a look across the pond. Trading floors in London echoed with the chatter of the surprise change in direction for boutique brokerage Scrooge & Marley County House. The company, whose American depository receipts trade under the symbol HUMBG, announced a number of new initiatives.
Chapter 5: What should income investors know about upcoming dividends?
Labor costs at the brokerage for the coming fiscal year will increase 100%. Investors are taken aback as wages have remained steady for more than a decade. The market was actually hoping for some traditional seasonal layoffs from Scrooge Marley, one analyst said. Reached at his London residence, CEO Ebenezer Scrooge said only that the spirits did it in one night.
Must have been two full bottles of spirits, quit one city trader this morning. In addition to the rise in labor costs, Scrooge and Marley have decided to invest a large portion of the substantial cash on its books to help thousands in want of common necessaries and hundreds of thousands in want of common comforts.
We frankly would have preferred a special one-time dividend to dispose of that cash, or at least a stock buyback, one portfolio manager said. Others focused on Scrooge and Marley's latest purchases, including a prized turkey and a scuttle full of coal. Foul futures were up a shilling in early morning trading, while coal futures ticked up sixpence. Happy holidays to those who celebrate.
Chapter 6: What are J.P. Morgan's top tech stock picks for 2026?
That's all for today's Wall Street Brunch. Look for links to stories in the show notes section. Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at seekingalpha.com slash WSB. And join the elite community of real investors to unearth great investing ideas. Just head to seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions.