The U.S. stock market indexes gained 0.1-0.4% on Friday, extending their short-term consolidation on Friday, as investors hesitated following the recent advance. The S&P 500 index closed at 2,850 mark and it is currently just 0.8% below the January’s 26th record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% and the technology Nasdaq Composite gained just 0.1% on Friday.

The nearest important level of support of the S&P 500 index remains at around 2,825-2,830, marked by the last Thursday’s daily gap up of 2,827.95-2,831.44. The next support level remains at 2,800-2,805, marked by the recent local lows. On the other hand, the level of resistance is at 2,850, marked the previous Friday’s daily gap down of 2,842.20-2,851.98. The next resistance level is at 2,860-2,865, marked by the early August local highs. The resistance level is also at 2,870-2,875, marked by the record high.

The broad stock market got close to its January’s record high recently, as investors’ sentiment improved following quarterly corporate earnings, economic data releases. The S&P 500 index is less than 1% below the mentioned January’s record high. Will it break higher? There are still two possible medium-term scenarios – bearish that will lead us towards the February low again, and the bullish one – breakout higher towards 3,000 mark. The latter one got very real recently:

Breaking Higher?

Expectations before the opening of today’s trading session are slightly positive, because the index futures contracts trade between +0.2% and +0.3% vs. their Friday’s closing prices. The European stock market indexes have gained 0.4-1.0% so far. There will be no new important economic data announcements today. The broad stock market will probably open higher. We may see an attempt at breaking above the early August local highs. If the S&P 500 index breaks above the mentioned resistance level of around 2,865, we could see another leg up.