A couple of months ago, I wrote that the student debt problem isn’t as bad as it looks on the surface. I recently found a more up-to-date take on the subject from the White House, which came to the same conclusion.

Now that both parties have nailed down their presidential nominees, it’s time to take a quick look at politics and how it may affect the economy and markets this year. As usual, we’ll focus on the policies that the two candidates have offered and their likely consequences.

The last couple of weeks have been tough. Between the multiple tragedies in the U.S., the attempted coup in Turkey, Britain’s decision to exit the European Union, and the subsequent change of government there, it’s been difficult to keep an even keel.

Yet again, the economy surprised us with good news last week. U.S. consumers went shopping, driving retail sales numbers higher. At the same time, both industrial production and manufacturing beat expectations and moved back to growth.

With markets returning to all-time highs, where are the opportunities? Yesterday afternoon, I was on CNBC's Power Lunch to discuss where I see chances for potential growth, including within consumer staples and financials, with co-anchor Tyler Mathisen.

After the pullback in the first quarter of the year, followed by the Brexit collapse and quick recovery, it seems as if the market has pretty much decided to head up. With U.S. markets at all-time highs and earnings coming in better than expected so far, it seems quite likely we will see continued appreciation.

That said, we also need to start thinking about what could potentially bring the stock market's updward climb to an end.

This morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new all-time high, as did the S&P 500. The news coverage seems to be split between those calling for even higher stock prices and those who are worried that a new bubble is forming.

In fact, it could be both.

Just as I do with the economy, I review the market each month for warning signs of trouble in the near future. Although valuations are now high—a noted risk factor in past bear markets—markets can stay expensive (or get much more expensive) for years and years, which doesn’t give us much to go on timing-wise.

For the second week in a row, the U.S. economy offered positive surprises. Both the service sector—the largest portion of the economy—and the employment market showed marked improvement, with data coming in well above expectations. Coupled with results from the previous week, the latest numbers suggest the economy has started to move again.

The news this month is much better than last, with the most recent economic data showing sharp increases against previously worrying downward trends. Although one month’s data won’t undo those trends, the consistency of the reversal across multiple data sets and the magnitude of the positive surprises are very encouraging.