Traders will be reading between the State of the Union's lines to see what Obama's new approach means for business and the market. And given stocks' steady rise for the past eight weeks, profit-taking and choppy action should be no surprise. [Video]
The strength of the market surge depends on economic news -- particularly unemployment data. Consumer confidence, personal consumption and GDP are three other big items on this week's calendar.
Stocks rallied sharply Friday to extend their winning ways to a fourth consecutive week. That's the longest rally since late April, when the markets hit their last peaks.
Alcoa reports its second-quarter results after the market closes Monday. But of much greater importance than what it -- and the slew of companies to follow -- earned in the period is what it says about future growth prospects. [With video]
This week's rally was welcome -- the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all tacked on about 5% in the last four days. But there's not much to read into the action because so many traders are still on vacation from the July 4 holiday. [With video]