There’s a jingle on Wall Street today. No, not Jingle Bells. It’s the sound of money and optimism returning.

The Dow is 200 points higher in midday trading and on track to notch one of its top 10 performances of 2014. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are also having applause-worthy performance with both up well over 1%.

Is this the start of the “Santa Claus” rally investors have been waiting for?

That’s certainly the hope. And it’s getting some extra weight given that today’s surge is being led by retail stocks.

Urban Outfitters, the once troubled teen store, is leading the rebound. The stock is up nearly 10% after the company upgraded its holiday sales predictions.

Staples is also having one of its best days on news that high-profile investor Starboard Value has taken a stake. Starboard likely wants to finally make a Staples-Office Depot marriage happen (a feat it’s been trying to achieve since the 1990s).

Overall, the holidays sales period is starting to look a lot merrier. Those in the know about the retail sector have been saying that you can’t just look at Black Friday sales. The reality is more and more retailers are running promotions all throughout November and December.

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[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]Retail sales for November that were released today appeared to confirm that. The forecast was for a meager 0.4% uptick, but this morning it turned out to be 0.7%. That’s a win and should be indicative of a strong December as well.

“The Saturday before Christmas — Super Saturday — is likely to be the No. 1 shopping day this year,” says Bill Martin, the founder of ShopperTrak.

The only question mark for investors appears to be oil. The price is sticking just above $60. There’s two ways to read this news, and investors are clearly conflicted.

On the one hand, cheap gas is acting like a tax cut for consumers. On average, households have about $500 more to spend thanks to lower prices at the pump. While some will save that extra cash, others are likely to spend, which will boost the retail sector and overall economy.

But the downside to $60 oil is the cutbacks in the energy sector, especially natural gas, which has been a growth engine for the U.S. in recent years. Major producers like BP and ConocoPhillips  have announced cutbacks to exploration and jobs.

“Clearly, the velocity of the decline at minimum is very unsettling to investors, and raises uncertainty on many economic and market valuation assumptions,” says Tim Anderson, Managing Director of MND Partners.

Energy stocks have taken a beating as a result, although the major companies will likely come out of this stronger.

The bottom line is investors still see improvement in the American economy. That’s why the Dow is up 7% for the year and the S&P 500 is up 11%.