Week ahead on Wall Street

The S&P 500 starts the final trading week of 2019 with gains of 29% this year. Many strategists say don't expect outsized returns to continue into next year. Bespoke Investment Group says the benchmark index returned an average of 6.6% in the year following a rally of more than 20%.

Investors get their latest read on the health of the housing market Monday. Pending home sales in November are expected to reverse direction and rise 1.5%. And look for home prices to rise further. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index will likely report home prices in 20 metro areas rose another 0.4% in October from the previous month, or 2.2% over the year before.

On New Year's Eve, we'll find out how jolly consumers were this holiday season. Economists expect consumer confidence to increase to 127.9 in December, up 2.4 percentage points from November.

The U.S. stock markets will be closed Wednesday for the New Year holiday.