The following table shows the 2000-09 average return for each day of the last seven days of the year for the major global averages.  The number 1, for example,  is the last trading day of the year.

On average, the Bovespa is the best finisher and the FTSE trades up almost 70 percent (68.57) of days in the last 7 days of the year.   Both the NASDAQ and S&P5oo suffered large losses on the last trading day of the year in 2000 and 2001 during the dot.com collapse, which brought down their averages.

Nevertheless,   the S&P500 and NASDAQ are definitely in need of more Christmas Spirit.  Maybe this year?