“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is a great Christmas hit. Yet no one ever wrote a song called “Santa Claus is Leaving Town”...and for good reason. Reality sets in that there is a lot of work to do after a big celebration and the big man won’t be back for a whole year. The Santa Claus rally in the equity markets the last two months of the year was a wild celebration. The S&P 500® Index more than doubled its return from the first ten months of the year (10.7%) by adding another 14% in just 41 trading days to end the year with a massive annual return of 26%. The much maligned Russell 2000® Index of small cap stocks did even better since October 31st. Down 4.5% through the first 10 months of 2023, the Russell 2000® Index rallied 22% in the final two months and finished up 17% on the year.

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