feb 11  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom over the past several weeks the sp 500 index spx has been struggling to sustain a breakout of the range defined by several longterm moving averages traders will be watching for twostraight closes outside this zone to suggest the range may finally be giving way read more  indeed since jan 31 the spx has primarily chopped in a range defined by its 100 and 200day moving averages dma on feb 2 and again on feb 9 the spx ended just slightly above the 100dma however the next trading day it immediately tumbled back below this moving average which ended thursday just shy of 4575 since reclaiming its 200dma on jan 31 the spx has used this moving average as support on feb 4 the spx fell to around 4451 which was just slightly above the 200dma the spx then snapped higher the 200dma ended thursday at around 4451 thus traders may be watching for twostraight daily closes outside the range defined by these moving averages to add confidence in the next shortterm trend meanwhile daily momentum remains stunted even on the days the spx ended above the 100dma the rsi was unable to muster enough strength to reclaim the 7000 overbought threshold doing so may signal the spx has sufficient thrust to sustain a push to new highs on a downside range resolution which leads to a test or break of the jan 26 close at 432651 traders will look for the rsi to establish a higher low vs its latejanuary trough this sort of convergence pattern may suggest potential for another bottom of some form in any event sp 500 futures are exhibiting a similar pattern as the spx after dipping toward their 200dma in overnight trade they have since recovered and are now slightly green on the day read more for fridays live markets posts prior to 0900 est1400 gmt  click here read more terence gabriel is a reuters market analyst the views expressed are his own