The missing Santa Rally isn't all bad news

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open gives investors access to everything they need to know, wherever they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

A rocky week of trading
US stocks rose on Friday but still finished the week lower. The S&P 500 Energy sector bucked the trend, and is up more than 3% for the week. Europe Stoxx 600 index fell 0.49%. Auto stocks were among the worst performers, with Stellar shares lost about 2% after the company reported a 45.7% reduction in 2024 production.

Boeing's rebuilding year
Boeing it hasn't posted an annual profit since 2018, which saw the first of two fatal crashes crash of his 737 Maxes which killed 346 people. A year ago, an unused emergency exit door he blew out a bit from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. New CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started the top job in August, is tasked with making sure Boeing can increase production and maintain quality. Here you go how is he getting on.

Foreign phone sales in China are falling
Sales of foreign phone brands in China came in at 3.04 million units in November, according to CNBC calculations based on data from the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology. That represents a 47.4% drop from November 2023, suggesting brands like Apple has been struggle in the Chinese market.

Microsoft invests heavily in data centers
Microsoft plans a Spending $80 billion in fiscal 2025 has built data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads, the company said on Friday blog post. More than half of the expected AI infrastructure spending will occur in the US, wrote Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith. Microsoft's 2025 fiscal year ends in June.

(PRO) Eyes on December works report
Huge chunks of economic data this week there are minutes for the US Federal Reserve's December meeting, out on Wednesday, and the December jobs report, out on Friday. While neither is likely to change the Fed's interest rate decision at the January meeting, they could provide more clarity on the central bank's moves in 2025.

On Friday, the S&P 500 changed so far -1.26% compared to yesterday Dow Jones industrial average has received 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite changed so far -1.77%. However, losses from previous trading sessions – by Friday, the S&P and Nasdaq were on a five-day losing streak – were too heavy. For the week, the S&P 500 declined 0.48%, the Dow lost 0.60% and the Nasdaq retreated 0.51%.

This means the Santa Claus Rally, something called, which appears where stocks did not climb in the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the next two, on the markets this year.

The lack of Santa's visit this year could indicate a tougher times ahead for stocks As the late Yale Hirsch, founder of the The Stock Trader's Almanac in 1968, said“If Santa Claus shouldn't be calling, bears can come to Broad and Wall.”

That said, putting too much faith in such signs is probably the same as believing that it was really Santa putting a PlayStation under the tree because we were nice kids.

And just as we got older and realized that it was money that gave us gifts, we have to remember that the stock market is a bet on how much money companies can bring in.

On the other hand, UBSDavid Lefkowitz, the bank's chief investment officer for US equities, is optimistic. “We expect the bull market to continue with the S&P 500 reaching 6,600 by the end of the year, primarily driven by healthy profit growth of 9%,” Lefkowitz wrote in a recent note. Its price target implies about 11% upside from Friday's close.

Now, that is such a precious gift that no man, real or imagined, could give.

— CNBC's Fred Imbert, Pia Singh, Sean Conlon, Jesse Pound and Sarah Min contributed to this report.