The equities market, the fickle beast that it is, told us that weaker than expected job gains and higher than expected inflation are no deterrent to higher stock market prices. The S&P 500 jumped more than 3.0% by the end of the last week and it looks like the market will keep moving higher in the near term at least. The setup suggests, in fact, a fairly strong Santa Claus Rally is brewing and it will take the S&P 500 index up to new all-time highs if it comes.

This week traders will be on alert for a slew of economic reports that include the FOMC meeting on Wednesday. The FOMC is expecting to accelerate the taper and more the timeline for interest rate hikes forward. The current expectation is for the first interest rate hike to come by May, the risk for the market is that it may come even sooner than that. Regardless, May is only five months away.