Many professional investors took a break for the Christmas holidays, leading to light trading in the Canadian and American markets. I also stepped back from closely tracking daily market moves, but one thing stood out—the absence of a Santa Claus rally this year. As a result, three of the four major indexes, with only the Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq) spared, and all three of my portfolios posted losses for December, though they still managed gains for the year overall.