The Fed stepped in at a good time with positive comments on rate increases as markets put some distance on recent swing lows. All markets now have a bit of wiggle room to defend and with seasonal 'Santa Rally' ready to kick off then we yet have more good news to come. The biggest one-day gain was the Nasdaq 100, it gained over 3% on higher volume accumulation. These gains came with a bullish cross in relative performance against the Russell 2000 and 'buy' signals for the MACD and On-Balance-Volume.  The first test will be the convergence of 50-day and 200-day MAs around 7,100.

Today was a good day for market bottom watchers as new support levels kicked in for indices. Best of the bunch looks to be the Russell 2000.  It still has a relative performance advantage and the bottom it's shaping came off a 'real body' bounce alongside a fresh MACD trigger 'buy'. It's early days, and the 'buy' signal I had marked as a retest was perhaps a little early but should still be good enough that such buyers will still be holding at this stage; stops on a loss of 1,465.

It could have been better but bulls should be happy with the work done in the Russell 2000. Yesterday's close pushed the index into the 10% zone of historic weak action (reached in October 2018) while also confirming a double bottom on a two-bar reversal. It's a second 'buy' signal after last Thursday's failed.

A mixed bag of action. Long-term investors can look to the losses in the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq as another accumulation opportunity but if you bought Thursday's bullish piercing pattern of the Nasdaq as a near-term trading opportunity you will likely have been stopped out - or feeling ready to flee. As a trading opportunity, the Russell 2000 is just above its stop zone (loss of Thursday's piercing pattern low). The MAD is still holding its 'buy' trigger along with its relative performance advantage, but ROC is accelerating lower - moving deeper into bear market territory. Investors shouldn't fear the noise and keep on dabbling a little here and there on the buy side.