Fighting the Good Fight Into Easter

While the gap down in equity markets this morning has not necessarily been overpowered buy bulls, the downside selling pressure remains less than stellar, with small caps fighting the good fight well off session lows.

On the IWM (ETF for the Russell 2000 Index) 30-minute chart, below, note the small caps had led to the downside this morning but are now within a stone's throw of flipping back to green. This type of price action means bears should likely exercise patience in stalking fresh short entries. Specifically, looking for these intraday bounces to fail would be a good indication that it is not business-as-usual since February, in terms of bulls remaining incredibly resilient. 

For Members, we have been watching the $106.30 area closely on IWM today. Buyers defended it valiantly within the last hour or so. And if that continues to hold, it may not be worth the trouble of mixing it up too much on the short side before the long weekend. Of course, the chart below could easily show a bear pennant since the morning gap down. But we know the difficulty in assuming bearish patterns will automatically resolve lower in this market climate, especially over a weekend. 

Elsewhere, P and VA are two buyout targets which have acted well late this week. P over $11 and VA over $35 are probably two triggers worth watching for longs next week, regardless if the buyouts come.