Christmas Day US stock markets are closed, making the crypto market appear especially quiet. During such times, market stagnation is most common, but it often hides signals of a potential turnaround. Looking at ETH's trend, the technical indicators are full of "buy" signals, but the reality might not be that simple.

**Diverging Signals in the News**

Last night, the three major US stock indices all hit new highs, with a strong holiday atmosphere. However, a closer look shows that most crypto concept stocks declined, clearly lagging behind the overall market. What does this reflect? The optimism in traditional finance has not effectively flowed into crypto assets. Large funds are on holiday, and the market lacks clear main themes. The final result is today’s narrow range fluctuation—neither breaking higher nor falling sharply.

**Contradictions in Technical Indicators**

On the 1-hour chart, a clear contradiction appears: technical indicators show strong bullish signals, but the price performance remains weak. Although MACD shows a bullish crossover, the red bars are shrinking, and momentum is waning. It’s like the engine has started, but the car isn’t moving forward—lacking genuine buying support. More painfully, the short-term resistance at 2988 remains distant, and current momentum cannot support an effective breakout. From a capital perspective, there is small inflow on the 1-hour level, but the 4-hour level is still showing outflows, indicating that large funds are still on the sidelines.

**Short-term Pattern: Range-bound and Weak, 2988 Difficult to Break**

Considering the holiday background and current market conditions, the recent trend is likely to remain range-bound, with the bearish side holding the upper hand. The 2988 level is, at least in the short term, an insurmountable ceiling.