Markets suffered heavy selling during early action, but were able to regain a large section of lost ground by the close. Large Caps had the best of the action, skewing buying towards more defensive issues, not surprising given the early scare. The 20-day and 50-day MAs have converged, and these played as a rally point for longs. Technicals retained their bullish picture.

Declan  Why is it traders like you and your ilk are uber- bullish in perpetuity? You write as if these indices have minds of there own, when in reality they are manipulated And propped up by primarily dealers trying to give the appearance of healthy indices... It never ends... The most hated bullshit market of all time.. Hi Peter, I don't think I'm uber bullish, more apathetic bullish. I would be happier to see this market take a dive so I could put my cash holdings to work instead of having them sit in the bank earning nothing!  If you look at the end of every post I show two tables which highlight levels where markets typically find historic extremes. Based on where markets lie now, there is no extreme. So one has to work with what's gone before, and that's a 6-year bull cycle which hasn't show signs of slowing.  People may think 6-years is a long time, and for many a bull rally that has gone before, it is. However, there was an 11-year gap from 1

It was not surprising to see the challenge of all-time highs rebuffed in the Nasdaq and Russell 2000. These were the indices most likely to see the benefit of buying strength, and both started off well. However, as the day wore on, bears were able to squeeze bulls out of their positions. Both of these key indices closed at lows. The Nasdaq finished with an inverse hammer as it attempted to challenge the 'bull trap'. Volume climbed from Friday to register distribution, although it wasn't particularly high volume overall. Tomorrow may see some follow through down, but there is plenty of support to work with, starting with 20-day and 50-day MAs.

A solid Friday to close the week helped push indices towards a challenge of 2015 highs. Volume climbed to register strong accumulation for the Dow and S&P, although things were quieter for the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100. The Russell 2000 sits just 4 points shy of a new all-time high. Last week's action offered step-by-step advance towards breaking the 'bull trap' at 1268. There is a good chance this high will be posted by Monday's close.