It appears the U.S. stock market bulls are not going to get a lump of coal from Santa Claus this year. The indexes are trending higher and this week are hitting multi-month highs. Cooling inflation and notions the Federal Reserve has ended its interest-rate-increase cycle are bullish for equities. Heading into the holidays, the path of least resistance for U.S. stock index prices is sideways to higher. Stay tuned! Jim Wyckoff