It has been a week of sparse market-moving news, but what news there was continued to be generally supportive of the market’s slow growth recovery. Remarkably, volatility continues to be very low. Unlike the 6 to 10% gyrations (in both directions) of late 2008 and early 2009, we’ve seen very few days this year when the market has moved more than 1% in either direction.

After a brief consolidation period and staying flat for two weeks, the market has resumed its upward march, with the S&P 500 setting new 52-week highs each day. Healthcare now tops the forward-looking rankings, followed by InfoTech and Consumer Discretionary, both of which continue their impressive climb.

The market continued its slow but persistent trek upward, inching along as it did during the holiday-shortened past week. In fact, the S&P 500 set an 18-month high today at 1187.73 and closed very near the high.

The market continued to inch ahead today, with the S&P 500 taking another aim at the 18-month high of 1180 which it reached last Thursday before backing off a bit on Friday.  The only thing nudging the market forward seems to be the lack of anything really negative. The economic releases over the past week and today were either at or slightly above projections, and we seemed to have dodged the bullet on a couple of portentous events.

Despite the global gloom that continues to cause significant concern about economic recovery virtually everywhere, the market pushed right through the resistance wall last week, threatened to give it back on Friday and this morning (Monday), but then continued forging ahead today.

As the market continues its slow but steady march further into overbought territory, Sabrient’s SectorCast-ETF rankings are holding steady. Energy, Healthcare and Financials still look undervalued, while Telecom, Industrials, and Materials look overvalued.

Is the market hitting a wall of resistance…or just refueling before takeoff? Today, the SPY (an ETF that tracks the S&P 500) was up for the twelfth consecutive day. So the question is, can it continue without a pullback to shake out the weaker holders? Let’s look at the numbers.

The market has gone straight up over the past week since beginning the month of March by breaking through its 50-day moving average. The top and bottom of Sabrient’s SectorCast-ETF rankings look pretty similar to last week, although there has been some shuffling as Energy takes the top spot and Healthcare re-emerges in the top two.