Using a general effective Lagrangian implementing the chiral symmetry breaking SU(2) L ⊗ SU(2) R → SU(2) L+R , we present a one-loop calculation of the oblique S and T parameters within electroweak strongly-coupled models with a light scalar. Imposing a proper ultraviolet behaviour, we determine S and T at next-to-leading order in terms of a few resonance parameters. The constraints from the global fit to electroweak precision data force the massive vector and axial-vector states to be heavy, with masses above the TeV scale, and suggest that the W + W − and ZZ couplings of the Higgs-like scalar should be close to the Standard Model value. Our findings are generic, since they only rely on soft requirements on the short-distance properties of...