Right, Yeah, a Buffer: The Market had a Lot of Buffers

With plenty of reasons to trade lower this week, including the historical nature of the government shutdown and other political headlines swirling this morning, stocks are instead flexing to help the major index charts push up and away from their respective 50-day moving averages. 

As we know, the Dow, S&P, small caps, and Nasdaq have spent virtually all of this shortened week of trading chopping along those 50-day reference points, slowing down the market action considerably and frustrating a great many traders trying to make something happen when, in reality, there was not too much to actually do. 

But with this morning's rally, software/cloud/cybersecurity plays are thriving, as well as gold and her miners. After a snapback rally in the Dollar yesterday, the softening greenback this morning seems to be enabling the precious complex to attempt a fresh leg higher after a fairly orderly consolidation since New Year's. 

Overall, the many "buffers" which stood in between bulls and higher stock prices seem to matter to the market less and less, as bears squandered many chances to roll us back over in recent weeks.