The S&P 500 fell early in the week after US President Trump said that phase one of the trade deal might not happen until after the election. However, this statement was later reversed by members of his administration and equities responded with a rebound back towards all-time highs. There is little reason to believe that the trend has changed in the equity markets and the focus will continue to be to the long side.

Having said that, there are a few risk events in the week ahead of to be mindful of. The UK election takes place on December 12 which could trigger some volatility in the global markets as well as planned tariffs on Chinese imports take effect on December 15. There will be some expectations for a deal announcement ahead of this date and to cancel out these tariffs, the lack of which could put pressure on the equity markets.

There are three stocks I'm watching in the week ahead, all with setups on different time frames ranging from a weekly chart to a 4-hour chart.

The first stock is Alphabet Inc (GOOGL). The setup stems from a weekly chart with a major level in play at $1291. This price point held the stock lower in 2018 and then again earlier this year. Three weeks ago, GOOGL rallied above the level to signal a bullish breakout.

The price action two weeks ago was a bit heavy and resulted in a weekly bearish engulfing candle which kept me on the sidelines. But further price action tells a different story. Buyers defended the breakout point on a dip and the rally from it has some momentum behind it. So much so that the stock closed at an all-time high in the past week. This points to strength and I think the risk to reward at this point is attractive.

The second stock I am looking at is Merck & Co Inc. (MRK) which shows a very similar setup. This one comes from a daily chart and references a break of the $87 price point. This is a level that held the stock lower on several attempts since the summer. There is a clean breakout on a daily chart and I'll be watching for a retest of the breakout point.

The last stock is Apple (AAPL) which has been a major out performer this year. The stock is up about 73% YTD versus the roughly 26% gain in SPY. This setup looks at a much smaller time frame. On a 4-hour chart, APPL was held by resistance $268 twice last month. After briefly gapping below support at $261 in the past week, the stock reversed with momentum to rally to fresh all-time highs. Similar to MRK, I'll be looking for a retest of the $268 level in the week ahead.