The good news is that after an ugly gap-down open, we managed to trend upward most of the day and closed strong. The bad news is that we still finished in the red on better than 2 to 1 negative breadth. There was an intraday trading opportunity for the early dip-buyers, and the machines produced a strong closing spike, but you really have to reach to be very positive about this market.
At the moment, we are still in a trading range, but the risk appears to be to the downside, especially with the news flow still so poor. I don’t expect the Republican debate or speeches by President Obama or Ben Bernanke to help for long, and Europe seems to become more confused every day. Tonight, a court decision out of Germany will likely have a major impact on trading tomorrow.
I read about alot of traders trying to force trades in this market because they are anxious to be doing something. They focus on a handful of charts and talk themselves into believing the market isn’t all that unhealthy.
