Santa Claus is coming to town. So say Jeffery Saut of Raymond James and wave theorist Steve Hochberg of Elliott Wave International. But, they quickly add, he won't stick around.
The markets' current lift certainly isn't supported by either leading or trailing economic indicators; Saut says it's quite something else.
"It was like pressing down on a spring for the equity markets," he explained to CNBC Tuesday. "You push it down far enough, you're going to get a throwback bounce. I think we've started the Santa rally; whether the markets are destined to eventually go lower remains to be seen."
He sees bargains in some technology names like Intel and Microsoft, with plenty of cash and no need to go to the credit markets.
Hochberg's wave charts also reflect an upward swing, although he's much more certain about the markets eventually dipping lower.
"I still think the bear market has years to run eventually, but nothing is a straight line, and a lot of the figures...are indicative of the late stages of this decline," he said.
He described the Santa rally somewhat less whimsically as "a fourth-wave upward move;" he's looking for one more leg down, then a fifth wave upward. So he's begun trying to spot that next leg down.
"We're much more interested at this point, instead of calling bottoms, in trying to call tops, because we want to align ourselves with the market's main trend, which we feel is still down," he said.
How much lower does he see it going?
"I'm talking a long way down," he said. "It's not going to be a pretty sight in the economy."