Equity markets have rallied strongly this year with the S&P 500 rising a record 7.9% in January.

The start of the week might well be a slow start for our American friends as it is expected more than $17 million people taking a sick day at work thanks to the Superbowl in the US.

At the same time, the economic calendar is a little thin so perhaps the week will be off to a slow start.

This week we do see some key data points to follow up the strong US employment number of Friday, including tentative releases of GDP and Retail Sales.

However, the fact that the market couldn’t rally on the strong jobs number is a cause to make me think the sellers are looking to step up at the moment.

So far today the ES is up 0.10% and slowly grinding higher in Asian trade.

Technical Outlook

The SPX is still holding above the 2700 level and although 2800 isn’t far away it might take some doing to get there.

After a strong run, I feel that markets sometimes need to consolidate and take a breather so it will be interesting to see if we are going to ease off on the back of the strong payroll number and lack of follow through.