No one likes making a call and being placed on hold. Unfortunately, that’s exactly where the market is just about now.

This is not what was supposed to happen. The new year began with high hopes, with the bulls expecting the rally that began with Donald J. Trump’s election victory to continue into 2017, while the bears salivated at the opportunity presented by a market that had gotten way ahead of itself. Instead, the market has failed to break up or down. Last week, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was virtually flat at 2,274.64, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 78.07 points, or 0.4%, to 19,885.73. The Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend by gaining 1% to 5,574.12, a record high.

“It has taken longer than people had hoped” for the market to find direction, says Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet. “It’s frustrating for both sides.”

What made it particularly frustrating was that President-elect Trump had the opportunity to get the market going again, but elected not to. At his press conference last week, Trump covered a lot of ground—everything from the media to manufacturing to the sky-high price of pharmaceuticals. But he didn’t cover the three subjects investors especially wanted to hear about—namely taxes, fiscal policy, and infrastructure. As a result, some of the primary beneficiaries of the Trump trade stalled.

The bright side: While investors might be reluctant to place further bets on the Trump trade, they’ve been more than willing to dive into areas that had lagged. Consumer discretionary and tech stocks, in particular, got a boost, with Facebook (ticker: FB) and Amazon.com (AMZN) gaining 4% and 2.7%, respectively. That suggests investors haven’t given up hope for more market upside, they’re just seeking less elevated opportunities. “Everyone’s looking for value where it resides,” says Todd Lowenstein, director of research at HighMark Capital Management. “That’s a healthy sign.”

(Source: Barrons Online)