Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City.

The S&P 500 reached a new high on Friday and was pacing for weekly gains as traders came back from the Christmas holiday.

The broad market index was last hovering around the flatline, as was the Nasdaq Composite . At its high, the S&P 500 was up 0.2%, reaching 6,945.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 77 points, or 0.2%, lower.

For the week, the S&P 500 was up more than 1%, putting the benchmark on track for its fourth weekly advance in five weeks. The Dow and Nasdaq were also up more than 1% week to date.

"People are taking profits here and there, or buying on lows, but there's not a lot of information. You're not getting corporate profit results. You're not getting a lot of economic data, so it's probably just more technicals and positioning heading into here," said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management.

The strategist highlighted the recent broadening that's been taking place in the market as a trade in play for the new year, noting that the S&P 500's rise to fresh records Wednesday wasn't propelled by the technology sector but rather financials and industrials – two cyclical areas of the U.S. economy.

"That just gives more confidence heading into 2026 that it's not just tech here and everybody behind them. It's the market benefiting from the tax bill that was signed in July, the rate cuts that came in the fourth quarter of this year," he continued. "Heading into 2026, those are some tailwinds."

Investors are also in a historically strong seasonal period, as they await a potential Santa Claus rally. The rally occurs between the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the new year. Data from the Stock Trader's Almanac shows the S&P 500 averages a 1.3% gain during that time going back to 1950.