It’s official. With only two trading days left, it’s impossible for the S&P to lose four sessions in a row this year. That means 2014 will become the first year ever that the index has managed to avoid such a streak, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Just another factoid that helps tell the tale of a weirdly persistent bull market that, according to our call of the day, is about to enter its third and final blowout phase. Look out above, says Richard Russell (see below).

Like David Tepper before him, Russell is one of many market talkers claiming that now is not the time to be cautious. Take what the market is giving you, and get out when it stops. Easy, right?

Investors, at least when it comes to the U.S. market, are banking on these guys being right. They just poured $36.5 billion into stock funds last week, the biggest inflow on record, according to Thomson Reuters. And it was all here in the States. U.S. funds attracted $39 billion, while non-U.S. funds saw $2.5 billion in outflows. The siren song of U.S. stocks is still blaring.

If that wild rush to mad gains that Russell is talking about comes to fruition, the market will have to awaken from its holiday slumber first. And there’s no sign of that just yet. After Friday’s multiyear low in trading volume, major indexes are again stuck in a tight range. Still, the fact that more stocks hit fresh highs than lows is a positive sign of strength.

Then again, utilities are still outperforming, which could be a sign of concern that the strength is about to be sapped. Either way, we could see an uptick in action this morning, with traders chewing on the consumer-confidence report as well as on some housing-price data.

Key market gauges

Stocks are keeping quiet this morning, with futures on the Dow US:YMH5 and the S&P US:ESH5 moving gently lower. Asia’s ADOW, -1.03% declines were a bit more severe, led south by the Nikkei NIK, +0.17% . Europe SXXP, -3.24% isn’t doing much better in the early part of its session. Gold US:GCG5 is ticking higher, while crude CLH25, continues to leak and is now down 50% from its 2014 high in June.

The quote of the day

“You’ll recall that three or four months ago, everybody in Washington was convinced that President Putin was a genius and he had outmaneuvered all of us and he had bullied and strategized his way into expanding Russian power. Today, I’d sense that — at least, outside of Russia — maybe some people are thinking what Putin did wasn’t so smart.” — President Barack Obama in a talk with NPR.

The economy

The S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for October is one of the week’s key reports, and it hits at 9 a.m. Eastern. An hour later, we’ll get the Conference Board’s consumer index for December.

The buzz

The market barely had time to shrug off an Ebola scare in Japan when another one hits. This time, it’s the real deal. Doctors in Scotland are treating a health-care worker who showed signs of having contracted the virus after she returned from working with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

Civeo CVEO, -6.73% is a big loser premarket, with shares off by almost 30% after the company warned of lower-than-expected revenue due to capital-equipment cuts. Civeo provides accommodations for energy workers, mainly in the Canadian oil sands region and in Australia.

Reviews are mixed so far about Shake Shack as a potential investment once it hits the public market. Place your vote here on what you’d do with it. Decent burger, but still has a ways to go to catch In-N-Out, the Holy Grail of cow between two buns. Read about Shake Shack’s rapid rise.

The chart of the day

This is a chart of 2014’s most talked-about stories, as seen through the lens of Twitter TWTR, -0.62% , where “the up -o-the-minute super-informed, sophisticated intelligentsia hides.” That’s how Zero Hedge describes it, anyway. The top stories were Ferguson and the midterms, “defined as such by liberal activists,” the blogger said, adding that guns, the favorite topic of conservatives, came in at Number 8. “While the media may or may not have a liberal bias, it does appear that the main talking points in at least [this] media distribution outlet are set by those [of] a liberal bent,” Zero Hedge opined. “Maybe simply because they have far more time to retweet and engage in meaningless Internet debate?”

Echelon

The call of the day

Behold the third phase of the bull market. And Richard Russell, the longtime writer of the Dow Theory Letters, is back at it, urging investors to pay attention. “Normally, following the second phase, we have a deep correction followed by a continuation of the bull market into a third and final speculative phase,” he said. “Readers should remember that stocks often advance as much in their third phase as they did in the first and second phases combined. “

Russell says he’s aware of the skepticism regarding his call, but that skepticism will turn into “shock and awe” when the stock market shoots higher. “My belief is that the coming of the stock market boom will envelope everything from housing prices to precious metals to all commodities,” he said. Russell completed his post with a bang. “Decades from now, people will talk about having been there in the third phase of the great bull market,” he said. Prepare to be smacked upside your head with his resume if you feel like asking this: Why should we believe you? “Sixty years of experience in the markets, plus my intuition.” Boom.

Random reads

The president golfs when he wants and where he wants. Regardless, he’s still the most admired man around for seven years running.

Monarch butterflies are disappearing.

So North Korea DIDN’T do it.

Ain’t no party like a Russian New Year’s Eve party.

To the Ayatollah, #BlackLivesMatter.

Meet the king of clickbait.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” was the most-pirated movie of the year. Sell signal?

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