Here's the latest in a series of weekend perspectives from Serge Perreault, a Chartered Accountant and market technician located near Montreal, Canada. Serge has been following the S&P 500 in a series of weekly charts since mid-January: Jan 19, Jan 24, Jan 31, Feb 5, Feb 12, Feb 19, Feb 27, Mar 6, Mar 19, Mar 26, and Apr 2.

This first chart is Serge's standard annotations on the SPX week, and the second chart is a similar snapshot of the Dow. The S&P 500 closed the holiday-shortened week up an impressive 1.38% and has increased its distance above the downtrend resistance dating from the market peak in October 2007.

Serge points out that, for the 5th week in a row, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrials have distanced themselves from a downtrend resistance dating back to October 2007. Does this confirm a change in the major trend? Perhaps. But volume has remained weak, and neither the RSI nor the ROC offers strong support for a continuation of the upward direction.

Click the charts for a close-up view and Serge's annotations.

• ROC (Price Rate of Change)
• RSI (Relative Strength Index)