Up, Down, Up, ....

Although we finished the day well off the highs and the trading was very choppy, buyers showed up several times throughout day to give this market some strong underlying support. Things were looking pretty dicey there early in the afternoon, but ‘tis the season for the bears to give the bulls a little room to do their thing. That means that traders will typically go hunting for momentum, and that seems to have certainly been the case as the resource sectors led to the upside once again.

It will be interesting to see how the conflicting influences resolve themselves in the days and weeks ahead. The volatility we’re seeing makes it difficult for investors to feel comfortable not booking their gains where they have them, and that’s going to make any upside progress we see in a seasonally positive environment difficult.

Still, the major indices look to be resting just under their respective 50 day moving averages, so perhaps this is just the type of back and forth action that will prepare this market for a run at those levels. We’ll see how it goes, but even though it won’t be easy, the ball is still in the bulls’ court.