Though the stock market will likely face a "technical uphill battle" this week, stocks appear poised to test new highs, veteran trader Art Cashin told CNBC on Monday.
Market observers are looking for the Dow Jones industrial average to soon hit 17,000—but Cashin thinks the index could push even higher, at least if the technicals are any indicator.
Cashin, director of floor operations at the NYSE for UBS, said the Dow could soon climb to 17,200, while the index could hit the 1,974 level.
"That's to be overly technical. Seventeen-thousand is a great psychological number and it looks good on baseball caps and things like that," Cashin said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "But if you do the actual counts, it's about 17,200 in that range where the resistance should show up."
"Also, in the S&P right nearby 1,969 to 1,974 somewhere in that range," he said. "So we'll get to test them pretty soon."
Read MoreCan market withstand more weak housing numbers?
Still, it could be "kind of a tough week" for stocks, especially considering the markets are usually down in the week following June option expiration, Cashin said. In fact, the market fell during that week in 21 of the past 24 years, he noted.
"So we got a little bit of a technical uphill battle there, but the bulls have had all the momentum so far. We'll see if they can continue it," he said.
—By CNBC's Drew Sandholm