It's been a back-and-forth day so far, with the early slide off the open resulting in limited losses mid-morning, followed by a recent bounce that has taken stocks back to their opening highs. Energy, financials and consumer disretionary stocks are outperforming, while health care and consumer staples sectors are underperforming.

Today's choppy action is likely the start of what will be a choppy remainder of 2010, with many participants closing their books for the year and taking vacation around the holidays. This should result in a low-volume trading environment, with few scheduled catalysts of interest. As such, the market is likely to trade on headlines and currency fluctuations.