New Week, Same Ranges, Same Waiting Game | SPX Market Briefing | 8 Dec 2025

Another Monday, another case of the markets doing precisely Sweet Fanny Adams.

Those pesky ranges we’ve been watching? Still developing. Still teasing. Still refusing to give us a definitive answer. We’re camped out near the upper boundaries on both SPX and RUT – close enough to smell the breakout targets, not close enough to claim victory.

And honestly? I’m still inclined to be a little bearish until we actually see these ranges crack open. Near the ceiling isn’t through the ceiling.

The week ahead brings FOMC on Wednesday – rate decision, projections, the full circus. Oh, and NFP? Moved to 16th December. Because feck it, apparently.

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SPX Market Briefing:

Monday brings the start of another week where we should be seeing breakouts, but instead we’re seeing… more waiting.

Current Multi-Market Status:

• SPX: Breakout mode – cat’s whisker from 6,902 target – waiting for resolution

• RUT: Breakout mode – cat’s whisker from 2,542 target – same waiting game

• VIX: 16.21 – Emo couch grouch mode, sulking in the corner

• GC: 4,237 – still grinding out its own range, no drama

• CL: 59.62 – actually showing signs of life with tiny channel breakout

The Waiting Game

Here’s where we stand: both SPX and RUT are in breakout mode. Both are a cat’s whisker from their targets. And both require exactly one thing from us right now – patience.

SPX is grinding at 6,870 with a breakout target of 6,902. That’s 32 points away. Close. But “close” doesn’t pay. We need either target reached or failure confirmed before the next move becomes clear.

RUT (Uncle Russell) sits at 2,521 with a target of 2,542. That’s 20 points of daylight between current price and destination. Same story – waiting for resolution.

Until we get target or failure? Nothing to do but wait.

The Outlier

Crude Oil is the one instrument not playing the waiting game. It’s showing a tiny breakout from its descending channel – “making its move” whilst everything else sits near boundaries doing nothing interesting.

Is it a real move? We’ll see. But at least someone’s trying.

The Calendar Curveball

FOMC Wednesday is the big one this week:

• Tuesday: ADP Employment, JOLTS Job Openings

• Wednesday: Employment Cost Index, then the main event – Fed Rate Decision (forecast 3.75% vs previous 4.00%), FOMC Projections, Statement, and Press Conference at 2:30pm

• Thursday: Unemployment Claims

NFP? Pushed to 16th December. Because scheduling is hard, apparently.

The Lean

I’m still inclined to be a little bearish until we see these breakouts actually confirm. We’re near upper boundaries – not through them. “Near” has a habit of becoming “rejected from” when you’re not paying attention.

Poppers remain active both ways. No directional filters needed when ranges are this tight.

Expert Insights:

The Setup: Markets consolidating at range boundaries with breakout targets tantalizingly close but not yet reached.

The Fix: Range-bound markets reward patience over action. Research from my analysis suggests that waiting for price to reach well-defined support and resistance levels – rather than trading in the middle of ranges – significantly improves decision-making quality. The temptation to anticipate breakouts before confirmation leads to premature entries and frustration.

The systematic approach: define your levels, wait for resolution, act on confirmation. Not prediction.

Fun Fact:

The Patience Premium: Why Doing Nothing Beats Doing Something

The most profitable trading strategy might be… doing absolutely nothing.

Here’s what nobody wants to admit about markets: they’re boring as hell most of the time. And that’s exactly why patient traders make money.
Research shows there are maybe 3 to 5 genuinely good setups per day. That’s it.
But emotional traders? They take 10, 20, sometimes 100+ trades chasing every wiggle on the chart.

The math is brutal. More trades means more commissions. More spread slippage. More opportunities to make stupid decisions because you’re bored, not because you have a strategy.

Range-bound markets reward the boring virtues-discipline, clear levels, and recognizing when “nothing to do but wait” IS the optimal decision.

The setup will come. The breakout will happen.
But forcing it before confirmation is like trying to make a cat move by staring at it harder.
Patience isn’t just a virtue in trading-it’s the actual edge.

Trade well,
T2 Markets

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