After briefly hitting a 2-year high yesterday, the S&P; 500 lost upward momentum, slipped, recovered but faded into the close ending up nearly unchanged. During the trading day, I was observing some intra-day charts, and the activity was painfully slow; it reminded me of watching grass grow.
Nevertheless, it appeared to be a consolidation day, which is a normal occurrence after the sharp upturn we saw last week.
The initial sprint was a result of President Obama agreeing to extend the Bush era tax cuts while reducing worker payroll taxes and agreeing to continuous jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
The dollar ended up higher along with interest rates, while gold and crude oil slumped. No earth shattering news from Europe made this a fairly calm trading day.
None of our sell stops were triggered, and it remains to be seen if the S&P; 500 can generate enough strength to break through yesterday’s high again.