Q: If there is a deal on time, will the market shoot higher?

Not necessarily. Stocks have been rising more or less steadily since mid-November, a sign investors already believed lawmakers would compromise. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has climbed more than 5 percent since Nov. 15.

That signals that a successful compromise is factored into stock prices already. Much more important to the market’s performance in 2013 is the economy.

Some investors, like Phillips, are pessimistic, pointing to an unemployment rate that is still much too high and personal income growth outpaced by inflation.

‘‘You really have to stretch to find a positive trend,’’ he says.

Tim Biggam, market strategist at the brokerage TradingBlock in Chicago, says other world economic problems that have faded from the headlines, like the European debt crisis, could roar back.

‘‘It’s kind of a false sense of security,’’ he says, ‘‘to have the ‘fiscal cliff’ put everything to the back burner.’’

Concerns about the U.S. government budget won’t be wrapped up by a ‘‘cliff’’ compromise, either.

‘‘Even if they come up with a near-term budget agreement, it will not be enough to solve many of the fiscal imbalances,’’ said Mike McGarr, a Portland, Ore.-based co-manager of Becker Value Equity mutual fund. He predicts that stock market returns for 2013 could be ‘‘pretty muted.’’

‘‘Once you get past whatever sort of budget deal they will come up with, there will be the realization that the story is not over,’’ he adds. ‘‘There’s going to be a lot more drama.’’

But others, including Hefty and Carmack, were more confident, pointing out that the housing market is improving, consumer confidence is rising and the unemployment rate is falling.

‘‘I'm pretty optimistic,’’ Saut says. ‘‘Not cautiously optimistic — I'm pretty optimistic.’’

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