Timid, But Still Present

The slow market action this morning is spilling over into the New York lunch hour, as retail, transports, materials, and biotech lag. Bulls have, however, largely blunted any aggressive downside action despite the glaring laggards and the overall narrow patch of leadership. 

Even with TSLA reversing hard into the red, for example, buyers continue to step in around $205 on the SPY ETF. 

Commodities are mixed, with the continued bounce in the U.S. Dollar seeing me wait patiently for a better spot to get back involved on the long side with miners. The XME, metals and mining ETF, is now cutting below its 20-day moving average, which need not mean the entire rally since the winter was for naught. But it likely means the Dollar bounce should be taken seriously. 

Regarding the small caps, we return to our recurring visual motif, below, of the IWM hourly timeframe, below.

A choppy morning sees the small caps flat here, with a close under $111 now, after previously losing $113, undermining the bull case.

To be sure, bears have been timid. But they are still present.