On The Fly: Weekly technical notes for S&P 500

The S&P 500 (SPX) is set to end the week higher, bumping up against the familiar 2950 area. This has been a very hard line of resistance that surprisingly has not been successfully challenged for long on the upside. For the coming week, the 2950-3000 area is a potential upside range test. Support is at the 2940-2910 area. Most sectors such as the Industrials (XLI), Financials (XLF), Energy (XLE), Consumer Staples (XLP), and Utilities (XLU) remain range bound. The weakest sectors are well below the midpoint of the 52-week high to low range. These are acting as drags on the index. Technology (XLK) and Health Care (XLV) are becoming range bound but at much higher levels, much closer to 52-week highs. Until that situation changes, with a broadening of the rally, the index will have difficulty advancing.