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Friday was a good day for indices, as both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were able to close near the highs of the week. Meanwhile, Thursday's losses in the Russell 2000 (IWM) were reversed by Friday's narrow range movement near the previous day's highs.

The indices all appear to be well-positioned to kick on, but it's the Russell 2000 which really needs to do so. The Russell 2000 still has Wednesday's spike high to reverse, but if it's able to generate a daily close that negates this high, it would also register as a close above its 200-day MA, which would be another significant positive.

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We can see on the weekly chart of the Russell 2000 that the high price touched on a convergence of the 20-week, 50-week, and 200-week MAs. The technical picture for this time frame is firmly bearish, which is why a good performance into Thanksgiving is critical to getting this index back on track.

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The weekly charts for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq do look a lot more healthy. Since the 'bear trap' three weeks ago in the S&P, we have had a good bounce off the mid-line of stochastics [39,1], and are on the verge of a new MACD trigger 'buy' to turn technicals net positive.

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The Nasdaq sits in a similar predicament to the S&P 500, having also navigated its own 'bear trap,' and it is ready for a fresh MACD trigger 'buy' above the bullish zero line.

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With a short trading week ahead of us, most of the action we want to see will come tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Although, for the Russell 2000, it will likely take until the end of the year before the weekly chart can be said to be past the worst of it, and plenty can still happen before then.

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