It's early morning on Christmas Eve and despite knowing the markets open today (albeit for a short session to 1:00 p.m. EST), it feels like no one is around. No surprise there, I guess.

Well, a few people are around after all since stock futures at this time indicate a higher open for U.S. stocks, reversing their earlier direction. Seems investors want to continue Friday's trend and push for a year-end rally -- will there be one?

On Friday, stocks surged in what many indeed hoped was the beginning of a Santa rally with the Dow Industrials ending 205 points higher, or 1.55%, the S&P 500 adding 24 points, or 1.67%, and the Nasdaq composite rising 51 points, or 1.94%.

While stocks experienced a significant rally Friday combined with large volume, today may see more choppy trading as volumes are usually small on this day. Some still expect the action to be more robust than usual for this time of year given the volatility and returns traders experienced this year.

So no economic indicators this morning, but there are some news items that can shed some light on the state of the consumer. Following a strong Black Friday shopping weekend, there were concerns the consumer didn't open his wallet as he did in years past. Well, this past weekend, the last shopping weekend before the holiday, "the nation's shoppers -- taking advantage of deep discounts and expanded hours -- jammed stores..." Still the spending surge may not be enough to offset the previous weeks' mediocre sales.