The market continued its slow but persistent trek upward, inching along as it did during the holiday-shortened past week. In fact, the S&P 500 set an 18-month high today at 1187.73 and closed very near the high.

The market continued to inch ahead today, with the S&P 500 taking another aim at the 18-month high of 1180 which it reached last Thursday before backing off a bit on Friday.  The only thing nudging the market forward seems to be the lack of anything really negative. The economic releases over the past week and today were either at or slightly above projections, and we seemed to have dodged the bullet on a couple of portentous events.

Despite the global gloom that continues to cause significant concern about economic recovery virtually everywhere, the market pushed right through the resistance wall last week, threatened to give it back on Friday and this morning (Monday), but then continued forging ahead today.

If the bulls had been paying attention to the economic indicators reported last week, you’d assume the market would be down substantially by now.  The fact is, however, that the S&P 500 is just down about -0.4% for the past calendar week, and today it’s up over a full percent. Obviously, the bulls didn’t see the surprising drop in Consumer Confidence, which fell to 46.0 from 56.6 in January, its lowest reading since early last year.

Forget that the market was down for the fourth consecutive week on Friday.  Investors woke up in a new world today and sent the market soaring.   It is Monday, after all.

Perhaps it was the new senator from Massachusetts who let the bears out, but I suppose it was a bit more than that. When the week began on Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King holiday, the bulls were grazing happily on GARP stocks, as contented as California cows.  But then somebody opened that gate, and the bears roared through and the bulls ran for cover.

Stocks came strongly out of the gate last Monday to kick off the 2010 Wall Street race. And indeed the market advanced throughout the week, albeit fitfully, with the S&P 500 starting the week at 1114 and closing at 1144. So let's recap last week's market data for some insight on where we should be looking to invest now.

Last week the market (S&P 500) battled resistance at the 1100 mark as if it were in the yawning sand trap at #14 on Pebble Beach – and Tiger Woods can't help us out just now.

It was yet another week of hanging around the1100 mark with the S&P500. It's not that there weren't important developments during the week. The trade deficit narrowed much more than expected, and retail sales got a substantial boost in November. Retailers alone sold $314.1 billion of goods, 1.4% more than in October and 2.2% more than a year earlier.

The market ended last week in a good mood, but is still struggling to gain enough traction for a sustained breakout beyond 1100 on the S&P500. The question in everyone’s mind:  Is it simply consolidating in preparation for a big Santa Claus rally? There are certainly plenty of market observers on both sides of the fence.