Welcome to closing bell. I'm Mike Santoli in for Scott Wapner. This make-a-break hour begins with the Bulls running out the clock on a third straight winning year and a rare eighth consecutive month of gains.

Another day of subdued action with a slight downside bias. It's somewhat similar to the way 2024 ended, which nonetheless did give way to a stronger action in the very early going

this year.

Take a look at the key index with 60 minutes left in regulation for the year.

The S&P is down about 4 tenths of 1% right now.

It is up almost 17% year to date, also within about 1% of its all-time high set in recent weeks.

NASDAQ down just about half a percent and is also the S&P down a little bit

since the start of the so-called Santa Claus rally period about a week ago.

We'll see how that plays out.

The 10-year treasury yield, it is perking up a bit a day after hawkish sounding Fed minutes though that yield does remain

solidly within a stable months long range right now about 416 as 2026 dawns investors collectively

anticipate the good times to continue with tax relief supporting spending corporate earnings

pointed higher the Fed prepared to lower rates further,

and AI spending still going full speed ahead. So which takes us to our talk of the tape,

are these expectations too hot, or are they just right? Let's ask MJP's Brian Vendig, 314

researchers, Warren Pyes, and CBC contributors, Sandhill Global Advisors, Brenda Vengello. Welcome to you all. So, Brian, I'll pose that to you. A client comes to you, says, we're on a great three-year run. Some of the leading stocks are up huge. Maybe I have, you know, heavy allocation to equities. What are we doing now? We adding risk,

we subtracting it, we're just moving it around to other areas? Well, I think, Mike, the fourth

court is a great indicator of that because I think investors are being a little bit more conscious

about valuations and making sure that they're not overpaying for growth. Because we've seen

in the short term, obviously, valuation stretch on the

growth side of the house, but we've also seen earnings come out for next year, expecting 15% growth

year over year, more contributions coming from areas outside of tech. And I think also when you

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