In a stranger-than-fiction bit of irony, investors are celebrating the longest bull market ever — with new all-time highs having occurred on the same day POTUS was named an unindicted co-conspirator in federal felonies.
If you blinked you missed it, but it was a new high for SPX — which promptly sold off after trashing bearish technical patterns.
Futures, which were off as many as 28 points after yesterday’s highs, are back up to a negligible 4-pt deficit thanks to VIX’s underwhelming response and oil’s algo-inspiring spike.
It’s reminiscent of election night 2016, when algo slight-of-hand successfully distracted investors from the angst of the overnight session. Can they do it again?
continued for members…
So far, VIX has been successfully kept under control.
Should it somehow come unbound, it has plenty of upside potential — starting with a white channel backtest at the SMA200 (14.58.)
The yield curve got much closer to zero today…
…thanks primarily to weakness in the 10Y.
Note that it’s testing the bottom of its smaller triangle.
With ES coming back strong in the past hour, it and SPX might not even touch their SMA10s. 
Yet, despite the manipulation going on, it’s important to note that SPX tagged the .236 line of its rising yellow channel.
It can be seen more clearly in the large daily chart below. This would normally be a bearish development.
Yet ES managed to hold the red channel bottom (which has already been breached before.)
And, NKD is actually up on the day…
…despite yen strength.
The EURUSD continues backtesting, past the initial overhead resistance.
This leaves DXY in a continued sell-off, with TL support at 94.67 and potential down to 91.59 if things get out of hand.
Needless to say, gold is enjoying the dollar’s demise – bouncing back above the yellow TL which marked a bottom last week. If it can break above 1208, it has potential to 1277.
UPDATE: 10:35 AM
Overall, crude showed a draw that was consistent with yesterday’s API data. But, EIA reported builds at Cushing and with gasoline and distillates.
CL and RB remain elevated, but not so much so that we have given up hope for those SMA200 tags.
VIX is still dumping, which is keeping ES in the green with its red channel intact — for now.
The question remains whether stocks are being supported just to allow insiders to get their ducks in a row for a bigger drop, or whether — is was the case after the election — TPTB will try to achieve and maintain a breakout.
The firepower is there — a breakout of USDJPY (NKD is currently above its SMA200), a breakdown of VIX, and a rebound in CL/RB would all contribute to equity strength. None of them would be particularly problematic except CL/RB, which are pushing CPI awfully close to 3%.
That might not be a terrible option, as TNX is in need of some technical support here. ZN continues to threaten a breakout.
More later.
UPDATE: 1:10 PM
The Saudi Aramco IPO is officially dead. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-aramco-listing-plan-halted-oil-giant-disbands-advisors-sources-idUSKCN1L71TZ