LIVE MARKETS-Is the Dow about to finally take a seat at the new highs table?

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IS THE DOW ABOUT TO FINALLY TAKE A SEAT AT THE NEW HIGHS TABLE?

On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC faded slightly in late trade, and just missed scoring its 21st record closing high so far this year. The tech-laden index ended down just 0.01% from its August 13 record finish.

The S&P 500 index .SPX did manage to eke out a record close on Thursday. With this, the benchmark index registered its 18th record closing high of 2025.

The Dow .DJI also slipped on Thursday. Of note, with zero record closes so far this year, the market's elder statesman has been noticeably absent from the new highs party. That, however, may finally be about to change.

The DJI ended Thursday at 44,911.26, which put it down just 0.23% from its 45,014.04 December 4 record closing high, and down 0.36% from its 45,073.63 December 4 record intraday high.

However, with e-mini Dow futures YMcv1 rallying around 250 points, or about 0.6%, in premarket trade on Friday, bulls are salivating over the potential for an opening surge in the blue-chip average.

Strength is being underpinned by a 10% jump in shares of Dow component UnitedHealth UNH.N. The stock is up after Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N acquired a new stake.

In any event, with its expected early gains, the Dow appears poised to not only break above the resistance line from early December 2024, which is now around 45,000 and has been capping strength since early July, but also surpass its record highs.

Moving forward, on a breakout to new highs, the Dow would have potential to target a resistance line from its 2007 high, which proved to be a barrier in late November-early December of last year, and now resides around 47,050.

Bulls would not want to see a reversal back below what will be the broken resistance line from December 2024.

(Terence Gabriel)

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