To those traders who are watching today's modest rebound in stocks - after a recent historic rout which saw the S&P suffer its worst December rout since the Great Depression - with excess skepticism and are unable to muster the confidence to pull the trigger and BTFD despite president Trump's promises that the water is now warm, you are not alone.

Below we present a handful of views from Wall Street strategists which confirm that with the S&P trading in and out of a bear market and action paralysis rampant, the financial pros not only don't trust any move higher but many remain borderline apocalyptic.

Masahiro Ichikawa, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui

"In addition to concerns toward the U.S. economy, the markets are now having to grapple with growing turmoil in the White House which has raised political risk ahead of the year-end."

Kenta Inoue, market economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley

"In the end, we believe that the Fed is the only presence capable of ending the current confusion in the markets. The White House will probably keep making gestures intended to halt the rout in stocks, but the federal government is likely to remain shut into the new year. The U.S.-China trade war also shows no signs of a resolution."

Walter "Bucky" Hellwig, SVP at BB&T Wealth Management

"It is very unusual that the bias among the market participants is to the downside during this time of the year, and there's not a lot of time to fix that. I am not a trader but I checked the futures three times on Sunday and am watching the futures on a Christmas evening as well -- when you get moves like this you just can't ignore them."