During the previous week, the Dow and S&P 500 managed to climb to new highs for the year. By Friday’s close, the indexes had retreated somewhat, but the Dow still posted a 0.5 percent gain for the week. The S&P fell 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq fell 1.0 percent.

The market will be closed for all of Thanksgiving Day and will be shortened on Friday. Expectations are that volume during the upcoming week will be light, and that leaves the door open for increased volatility.

Friday is also the start of the holiday shopping season, and analysts will anxiously wait for signs that consumers are willing to purchase. But third-quarter figures for retailers and corporate outlooks for the end of the year have not been overly encouraging.

Economic data during the coming week includes existing home sales on Monday and new home sales on Wednesday. Sales for existing homes are expected to increase to their highest level since July of 2007. But the new home sales market continues to struggle. That was evident in the third-quarter earnings report last week of D. R. Horton (DHI), which posted losses more than twice what was expected.

On Tuesday, third-quarter GDP data will be released. Original estimates, showing annual growth of 3.5 percent, are now thought to have been too optimistic, especially in light of last week’s higher-than-expected trade deficit. The expectation now is that GDP will show annual growth of 2.9 percent.

Also on Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee will release minutes of its most recent meeting. The high rate of unemployment and the low rate of inflation are expected to indicate that extremely low interest rates continue to be justified.

10 Stocks to Watch

We're watching ten stocks this week for potential breakouts. Our ten stocks on the watch list are the following:

AFLAC Incorporated (AFL)
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP)
Duke Energy Corporation (DUK)
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG)
HCP, Inc. (HCP)
Mylan Inc. (MYL)
Pepco Holdings, Inc. (POM)
PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP)
Pfizer Inc. (PFE)
Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL)

Dave Mecklenburg is the Editor-in-Chief of TigerSharkTrading.com.