RONALD S. GOSECO
The much anticipated Santa Claus rally in the December stock markets fizzled out. A big chunk of the losses came during a violent December that saw the US indexes dropping around 9 percent for the month and affecting all markets globally including the Philippines which dropped 12.8 percent. The Dow and the S&P 500 recorded their worst December performance since the global recession of 1931 and their biggest monthly loss since the global financial crisis of 2008.