NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With the finish line in sight, it looks like the bulls are raring to run.

Stocks are set to finish their first year in the plus column since 1999. So far in 2003, the Dow has tacked on 17 percent, the S&P 500 is up 20 percent and the tech-stuffed Nasdaq is up 47 percent.

The way things stand, these gains look likely to extend in the final month of the year.

First off, this is a seasonally good period for stocks. Lay it on holiday cheer or lay it on portfolio managers marching the indexes higher to pad performance, historically December is the market's best month.

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Institutionally, the desire to cap off the year on an up note is particularly strong this time around -- the better the market closes out the year, the more cash investors are likely to allocate toward stocks come 2004.

Not that this is the only factor pointing toward an up December, points out FTN Midwest Securities equity market strategist Tony Dwyer.

Dwyer's technical work suggests that, after a sloppy November, stocks are "oversold," meaning that most of the people looking to book profits on stocks already have done so.

This doesn't mean that stocks can't go down, but it does suggest that the path of least resistance is up.

Meanwhile, Midwest's industry check suggests the fourth-quarter is going quite well.

"Our survey work says that businesses are improving across all sector lines," he said. "I think that as we get further through the quarter, you'll have more companies suggesting things are good."

With Intel slated to give its closely-watched mid-quarter update on Thursday, the good news could start coming as soon as the coming week. (Click here for a line-up of the week's key events.)

With a raft of big economic reports, the week ahead also will give investors a clearer picture of how the overall economy is fairing. The highlight will be the November employment report, due Friday.

The news on the jobs front should be good, according to Lehman Brothers economist Joe Abate. He expects the economy to have added around 150,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate should hold steady at 6 percent.

Lehman's economists think the economy will do well next year, with a forecast for gross domestic product to grow at 4.1 percent. Although consumer spending should slow, said Abate, there already are signs that business spending is accelerating quite aggressively.

Even this heady growth rate won't be enough to meaningfully take down the unemployment rate, however -- Lehman forecasts it will slip only slightly through 2004, falling to 5.8 percent by year end.

The 2003 market rally has hardly been democratic -- or even meritocratic, by the reckoning of many investors.

Stocks that looked like they might be destined for extinction last year have put on big moves while safer names have made only grudging gains.

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Small stocks have done much better than big stocks. Cyclical stocks, like semiconductor chipmaker Applied Micro Devices (AMD: Research, Estimates), have done better than more steady growing companies, like corn-chip maker PepsiCo.

Some Wall Streeters reckon this is all about to change, however, as the economy shifts from the initial, big-growth stage of recovery into more prolonged expansion.

Past experience says that when this happens, investors rotate into more staid companies.

But the timing can be iffy, points out First Albany chief investment strategist Hugh Johnson. Looking at post-World War II bull markets, he's found that investors always do make a shift from small-cap stocks into large-cap stocks, for instance, but the move has occurred anywhere from the ninth month of a bull run to the 27th month.

"It's foolish to jump the gun," Johnson said. "The thing to do is wait until you actually see large caps outperform, because if you don't wait you can be a year early."

• Automakers release November car and truck sales through the day on Monday. Economists polled by Briefing.com expect they'll pick up to an annualized 13 million from October's 12.5 million.
• Economist's expect the Institute for Supply Management's purchasing managers' index, slated for Monday, will hold steady at 57 for November. Any number over 50 signals expansion in the manufacturing economy.
• October construction spending, due out Monday, is expected to edge up by 0.5 percent after gaining 1.3 percent in September.
• The upward revisions to third-quarter Gross Domestic Product mean that the third-quarter productivity gain, due out Wednesday, will be revised up from the initially reported 8.2 percent.
• The Institute for Supply Management's services index, due out Wednesday, is expected to slip to 64 for November from October's 64.7. Any number above 50 signals expansion in the service economy.
• November nonfarm payrolls, due out Friday, are expected to show a gain of 150,000 jobs, adding to a 126,000-job gain in October. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 6 percent.