Wall Street is heading into the Christmas holiday riding high, though not everyone is convinced that these levels are sustainable. The S & P 500 climbed 0.5% on Tuesday to end the day at 6,909.79, a record close. The move brought the benchmark’s 2025 advance to 17.5%. The index is well on track for its third straight year of double-digit gains. But Katie Stockton, chart analyst and founder of Fairlead Strategies, thinks a pullback may be in the cards for the market soon. “Since mid-October, we’ve seen a loss of momentum,” Stockton said in a CNBC ” Squawk Box ” interview. “You feel the ups and downs; it’s more volatile.” “That’s not necessarily bearish, but what we have seen is a loss of intermediate-term momentum that puts us on watch for a deeper corrective phase,” she said. Indeed, while the S & P 500 is at record levels, it has seen 12 daily moves of more than 1% since early October. Seven of those moves were lower. Stockton noted that a close above 6,911 would serve as a “short-term positive catalyst.” Otherwise, “we’re going to assume that we’re still in this kind of corrective mode and wait for a better entry point.” She also pointed out that trading volume this week has been light as U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for Christmas Day. The stock market will also close at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The SPDR S & P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) traded just 64.84 million shares on Tuesday. That’s well below the 30-day average volume of 86.14 million, per FactSet. Volume across U.S. exchanges was also lackluster at just 14.4 billion versus a 50-day average of 18.6 billion.
