Today's action saw bears attempt another day of selling, but buyers were able to recover markets by the close of business. Volume climbed to register as distribution, but the end-of-day recovery softened the blow.  Tomorrow is a chance for bulls to arrest what has been a sequence of down days. The S&P finished below the 50-day MA with technicals all net bearish. The 'doji' candlestick is a positive and a stop below today's lows offers a chance for bulls looking for a trade low.

The Short Term picture has been favoring bulls with indices knocking at new all-time highs. However, the Long Term picture hasn't really improved to the same degree. This chart of the relationship between Consumer Discretionary and Staples ETF, which J.C. Parets had shown in the past, has taken another turn in favor of bears. With the S&P at new highs, the ratio between Discretionary and Staples is about to post a new swing low to levels last seen in 2013. Should these losses accelerate it could lead to market declines last seen in 2000 and 2008. If this occurs, the media may pin it on Brexit/Trump/Kittens, but in the battle between supply and demand, supply could be in the ascendancy.

With today belonging to sellers - just - it was good to see it accompanied with low volume and very little net change in price.  Today was the perfect riposte to recent gains and shows the lack of interest for shorts to act or for longs to sell. The S&P is knocking on the door of 2,125.

Another good day for indices. All continued to gain ground as new all-time highs become closer to reality. The Russell 2000 continued to pull away as the May rally picked up steam. After a period of extended weakness it has managed to push a positive Rate-of-Change - the one indicator which had been strongly bearish until this week.  Relative performance added to its new swing high too.

There wasn't a whole lot to say about lead indices today, but buyers of the Semiconductor Index will be very happy heading into tomorrow.  After what amounted to two days of bearish action, today's buying was enough to negate the black candlestick and return the index to its earlier rally. The relative performance of this index against the Nasdaq 100 continued to improve.

The Russell 2000 led the market out with a 1%+ gain as relative performance continued to gain ground; the next phase of the Small gap rally is well underway. This is good news for bulls looking for gains to continue throughout the summer.

It was a low key Friday for markets. Markets finished near Friday's highs, but the Semiconductor Index finished with a potential bearish 'black' candlestick (a lower close to open, but a higher close to the previous day). CCI for this index is ready to cut below the 200 marker.