Year end pressure on stocks should relent temporarily, but the bear market will persist

Investors have been hopeful that an easing of China’s nonsensical “Zero COVID” restrictions would help to deliver some upside action, but there has been little buying interest. As a miserable year closes out, weakness in bonds and bearish positioning for the start of the new year are preventing any positive momentum from developing in this bear market.

James “Rev Shark” Deporre for TheStreet’s RealMoney:

Over 640 stocks hit new 12-month lows on Tuesday, including former market leaders Apple and Tesla. This is likely due to tax loss harvesting and positioning for the new year more than fundamental considerations.
The good news is that tax selling, and end-of-the-year pressures will start to lift, and there should be an increased focus on trying to pick some names that have been pressured the most but still have good fundamentals.
The nature of bear markets is very broad selling as indexes and ETFs are used as primary trading vehicles. This drives all stocks down in tandem, regardless of their merits. About 2/3’s of the stocks in the Nasdaq 100 sold off on Wednesday as traders continued to dump (QQQ) and its heavy weighting in Apple and other big technology names.
This is a miserable market right now, but there should be some temporary relief as tax selling and end-of-the-year pressures relent – [just] don’t expect it to last for longer. We are in the jaws of an ugly bear market, and there is little confidence that any counter-trend move will last for long.

MacDailyNews Take: To paraphrase Queen Elizabeth II:
2022 is not a year on which we shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis.”
The good news is that, eventually, this too shall pass.
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