The stock market has been on cruise control for the holidays, with the bulls teasing the bears occasionally but giving little back. Powered by the Fed’s cash machine, the SPY has continued on its strong December path. The market is now in blue sky territory, and not even China interest rate hikes and lower consumer confidence readings can stop it.

Market volatility continues, with the Dow gapping down under 10,000 to start the day today before recovering nicely by the close. Most of the major indexes are still below their 200-day moving averages, but interestingly, the Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) and the Russell 2000 (IWM) actually closed above theirs. I see this as bullish.

The stock market’s technical “topping formation” finally manifested in a correction in early May, and it resumed over the past several days. The 20-day moving average that had provided consistent support during the methodical rally has proven to be formidable resistance (along with the converging 50-day).

As earnings season gets underway with mixed results but a generally positive trend, Wall Street analysts are coming out with upgrades and downgrades to earnings estimates that are significantly impacting our sector rankings this week.

The market twice threatened to pullback over the past week, but each time it resumed its methodical upward trajectory. The S&P 500 set a new intra-day 52-week high on Monday, and then set another 52-week closing high on Tuesday. Sabrient’s SectorCast-ETF model shows little change from last week, with Healthcare on top, again followed by InfoTech and Consumer Discretionary.

After a brief consolidation period and staying flat for two weeks, the market has resumed its upward march, with the S&P 500 setting new 52-week highs each day. Healthcare now tops the forward-looking rankings, followed by InfoTech and Consumer Discretionary, both of which continue their impressive climb.