Financials Outperforming Slightly in December

Financials (represented by XLF) may be lagging the S&P significantly for the year, but for December at least, they're actually leading a bit.  For the month, XLF is up 1.29% while the S&P is down 0.35%.  For the year, the XLF is down a punishing 18.64%, while SPY is down 0.84%.

Typically, December is a month for traders to press winners and losers--meaning that what has gone up for the beginning of the year continues to move higher in December while the opposite is true of what has gone down.