After two previous failed attempts at breaking the 1900 mark, the S&P 500 finally made it through on its third attempt and has continued to drift higher since. The index seems destined to challenge the 2000 mark before the year is out, but it would not be surprising to see this 'big, round number' be a difficult level to surpass, and could possibly bring a period of sideways markets if not an outright correction. Investors tend to be cautious when stocks, currencies and indices approach big, round numbers and it usually takes not only a lot of buying but repeated attempts to finally break through these psychologically important levels.
Canadian markets have cooled off a bit lately, and the market has been behaving like it's 2013. Whether or not this becomes a continuing trend remains to be seen. The TSX has a big, round number of its own to contend with and if it wants to keep pace with the US markets it will need to break through the 15,000 level sometime in the near future.
