S&P 500 Finally Breaks Record High

Stocks’ seesaw ride continued today, following a slight down by climbing 0.4% – enough to push the benchmark S&P 500 to a new all-time high.

The S&P 500 had been flirting with the record – 1,565.15, set in October 2007 – all week. On Monday, the index briefly touched 1,565 early in the day, only to pull back that afternoon.

On the final trading day of the first quarter, however, the S&P finally broke through, vaulting to a new high at around 10:45 this morning. The index is currently hovering in the 1,568 range with an hour to go in the session.

If it holds, this will mark the eighth consecutive day that the S&P has alternated between up and down days. As I wrote yesterday, despite all the ups and downs, stocks haven’t really gone anywhere of late. The S&P has operated within the same 1.2% band since March 8.

However, now that the index has broken through its previous record high, it may be ready to break out even higher. Monday may be the true indicator of which way the market’s going.

If the S&P holds form with another down day, then it’s anybody’s guess. If the index shoots up even higher from its new record, perhaps we’ll see yet another rally.

But then again…Monday is April Fools’ Day. Maybe we shouldn’t put much stock (pun intended) into anything that happens that day.