Intraday Look and Analysis: Stalemate

The 30-minute SPY chart below indicates the New Year’s gap higher is still obviously unfilled. While it seems that traders on either side of the tape are looking for a big move, the net result since the first trading day has been a sideways-to-sightly-higher grind on the benchmark.

As you can see, the Bollinger Bands on this timeframe are tightening up considerably as volatility abates. From compressed states in the market often come big moves. But for now we are looking at a stalemate. The seemingly bearish headwinds of a weak Apple and Nasdaq lagging needs to be fought off by the bulls with another rotation, likely into energy stocks, in order to fend off a sharp broad market pullback.

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