Market Whack-A-Mole

On a daily basis, it seems as though equities, even more than usual, are playing a game of whack-a-mole with various issues around the world. On some days, the Japanese Yen comes to the forefront; Others, it is China or the EU. 

Today, crude oil strength look to be helping bulls sustain an opening gap higher. In addition, copper is gapping up and gaining some traction after sloshing around for a good while. The issue is how sustainable these moves are, of course, given the lack of leadership in equities and lingering technical evidence of a badly-damaged multi-year bull. Biotechnology stocks, for example, are relatively weak again compared to the indices and other sectors here, failing to display signs of accumulation.

Still, if the USO ETF, for crude, below on the daily chart, can now push and hold over $9 to the upside of the highlighted falling channel, the near-term path of least resistance is likely up to 1950 on the S&P 500 Index. 

We are looking at a few intraday scalps, but are mostly watching intently to see if bulls can build on the ongoing bounce.