It is gearing up to be another quiet day on Friday, as investors slowly return following the Christmas holiday. There are no notable economic data releases or corporate earnings announcements on the calendar for Friday.

Nevertheless, market participants will continue to monitor the market action following record closes for all three of the major indices Thursday. The recent rally has fueled investor confidence that a so-called “Santa Claus rally” is intact this year and stocks will continue their run into year-end.

At the end of regular trading Thursday, the S&P 500 (^GSPC), Dow (^DJI) and Nasdaq (^IXIC) closed at record highs with the tech-heavy Nasdaq crossing the 9,000 level for the first time ever.

—

Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung.

More from Heidi:

• From fruit-flavored Coke to Hershey Kisses: The reason behind the flavor variety boom

• Deutsche Bank resumes coverage of 13 food companies

• McDonald's could be the key to $1 billion in sales for Beyond Meat, UBS says

Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news