Watching the VIX: The CBOE Volatility index .VIX fell to its lowest level since April, dropping 7.4% to 16.11.

Some indicators are pointing: to an “Overbought” market such as high levels of Bullishness, often seen as a contrarian indicator, as well as a high Call to Put ratio, indicating players may be complacent about hedging a fall in prices.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) fell 0.2% to 320.61, while Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) rose 0.7% to 136.50.

This was offset on the Nasdaq by gains in both Oracle Corp (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) a day after they posted strong quarterly results. Oracle gained 3.9% to 31.46 while US-listed shares of RIM were up 1.6% to 60.20.

US-listed shares of Banco Santander (NYSE:STD) fell 2% to10.52 while Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) dropped 5.5% to 11.90. However, the impact on U.S. shares not directly linked to the Irish situation were limited.

Regional banks traded higher after Canada’s Bank of Montreal (TO:BMO) agreed to buy Marshall & Ilsley Corp (NYSE:MI) for $4.1 billion, sending the stock up 18% to 6.85.

Peer regional bank KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) climbed 4.1% to 8.42 while Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) added 1.8% to 6.24.

The KBW Regional Banks index .KRX rose 0.3% and has risen more than 11% this year, with most of that coming in December despite continued debt woes from European banks.

Mergers and acquisitions are up for the first full year since 2007 and may mark the start of a new, multiyear M&A cycle.

Leading Economic Indicators was the only piece of economic data released today. They showed a 1.1% increase vs the consensus that called for a gain of 1.2%. Last month’s reading was revised to 0.4% from 0.5%.

Markets are closed next Friday for Christmas, and the rest of this upcoming Holiday period is expected to be characterized by light news flow, low volumes and choppy trading

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Dec 20th, 2010and filed underAsia-Pacific Companies, Commodities, Copper, Credit, Emerging Markets, Energy, Equities, Exclusive, Financials, Foreign Exchange, Forex, Futures, Gold, Health, Heffernan Capital Management, Hot Topic, In Depth, Industrials, Interest Rates, Market News, Markets, Media, Metals, News & Events, Oil, Platium, Rates & Bonds, Retail & Consumer, Silver, Special Reports, Stocks, USA, World News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site