Market are shaping into small pennants/coils as last week's losses shape into a set of inside days. For indices testing 200-day MAs, the reaction bounce has now stalled as markets search for the next move. In the case of the S&P, today's reaction to the bounce has been somewhat disappointing with an inside day which failed in its attempt to challenge overhead 50-day MA resistance. Technicals have also move into net bearish territory. It looks like the next move down, but a close above the 50-day MA would likely be enough to see a challenge on 3,025.

After Thursday and Friday's gains, today saw the brakes applied with a stall in the rally. The S&P came up to resistance at the 50-day MA and even managed a recovery of slow stochastics [39,1]. There are bearish 'sell' triggers for the MACD and On-Balance-Volume, counterbalanced by an uptick in relative performance against the Russell 2000.

There was a bit more impetus to today's action as sellers took another swipe at markets. Existing - broad - trading ranges remain the dominant influence but some indices are closer to dropping outside of these ranges than others. The Russell 2000 will likely see a challenge on the August 'bear trap/; if not tomorrow then probably before the week is out. Technicals are net bearish but not oversold, which suggests there is room for more downside and if a crash was to emerge then it's not going to happen until the index is oversold.

There was another sweep lower as indices returned to, or swept aside, moving average support. Hardest hit was the Russell 2000 as it undercut both its 50-day and 200-day MAs. The index is charging towards 1,465 support with little in the way of technical support to lean on. Stochastics are at the mid-line which is historically a bounce level for stocks in bullish markets, but it would seem unlikely this will happen here.

Friday belonged to Bears as sellers finished the week in control but bulls still have support to lean on in the shape of moving averages. The S&P is leaning on the 50-day MA with 'sell' triggers in the MACD, On-Balance-Volume, and ADX, although relative performance ticked up against the Russell 2000. Volume rose in confirmed distribution. Monday is a fresh chance for bulls to recover the losses.

After yesterday's losses today was the turn of moving averages to step in as support. Action for the last couple of days does look like washout trading to shake out weak-holding longs The Russell 2000 suffered the most on Tuesday but did well to attract buyers at its converged 50-day and 20-day MAs. While today's buying was good it wasn't enough to prevent a MACD trigger 'sell'.

There wasn't a whole lot to today's action aside from reaffirming the consolidation action in lead indices. Trading volume returned to normal after Friday's Triple Witching. For the S&P there was a bullish cross between the 50-day MA and 20-day MA as the narrow consolidation near resistance stretched into a second week.