What a Week: Minor Tremors

The Democratic wins in the midterm election this week washed over Wall Street markets like a gentle wave rather than the tsunami felt in Washington. The real $64 trillion question is not what the election means for stocks, but when is this market going to correct already?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone over 900 days without a 10% correction -- the fourth longest stretch in its history. The May market downturn sent the major averages down no more than 7% before a rebound commenced. This week, the Dow hit new all-time intraday and closing highs and finished up 1% for the week to 12,106.35 after a very modest rally Friday. The S&P 500 finished the day up 0.2%, and 1.2% on the week, to close at 1380.77. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6% Friday to 2389.72, up 2.5% on the week, led by big gains in Cisco Systems (CSCO Quote).

With bullish sentiment still running high, angst about when and how a "real" correction might happen has returned to the market.

The turning point could come next week as investors await several economic data points to see if they'll confirm the slew of weaker-than-expected data that streamed in last week, says Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. With retail sales figures, inflation data and the first industrial data points for November out next week, the bears are looking for the soft landing to slip away. Meanwhile, the bulls are hoping for upside surprises, the way the payrolls revisions revitalized the market last Friday.

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