[BRIEFING.COM] Stocks appear to be making a last-ditch effort to show the bears who's been in charge of this market all year long, especially since the market bottomed out in mid July. Most noticeably has been a turnaround in Consumer Discretionary, led by Computer & Electronics Retail (+1.6%), Department Stores (+1.0%) and Leisure Products (+0.8%) -- three of today's best performing S&P industry groups. However, if history is any indicator, recent recovery efforts will likely fall short of an overall turnaround since the last trading day before Christmas has finished to the downside in each of the last four years, according to The Stock Traders Almanac. On a positive note, the days after Christmas often produce a rally and, given the current tone in the market, it would be hard to bet against that from happening this year. Nasdaq -9.21 at 2406.64... NYSE Adv/Dec 1252/1956... Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1333/1658.