Foxtel sold for $3.4 billion, ASX closes 1.7 per cent higher — as it happened

So just what is and when is this Santa Claus period that so excites the market? The etymology of the phrase is credited to the founder of the US-based Stock Trader's Almanac Yale Hirsch who defined it as, " the last five trading days of the year combined with the first two of the following year". The Almanac notes since 1950, the Santa Rally has delivered an average gain on the S & P 500 of 1.3% "Despite all of the high frequency trading and algorithmic trading and the velocity of the market these days…patterns [like the Santa Claus rally' continue to persist," Jeffrey A. Hirsch, Yale's son and current editor of the annual Stock Trader's Almanac noted. These include: increased holiday shopping increased holiday shopping seasonal optimism seasonal optimism end-of-tax-year considerations end-of-tax-year considerations less institutional trading since many cut back on activity during the holidays. The Santa Claus period, when combined with the following first five trading days of January and the performance of January overall, is When those three indicators are positive, the year has ended higher more than 90% of the time in the past 50 years, according to the Almanac.