Pre-market update:

• Asian markets traded 0.4% higher.
• European markets are trading 0.1% higher. 
• US futures are trading 0.2% higher ahead of the market open. 
  

Economic reports due out (all times are eastern): ICSC-Goldman  Store Sales (7:45), Redbook (8:55), S&P Case-Shiller HPI (9), Chicago PMI (9:45), Consumer Confidence (10), State Street Investor (10) 

Technical Outlook (SPX):

• Nice consolidation over the past two days of trading. 
• Bull-flag like pattern emerging. 
• Last year the markets saw a massive rally to close out the year. 
• I suspect we’ll see more of what happened yesterday where the markets trade in a tight and narrow range. 
• If we see a pullback here, anything that doesn’t break 1809 will be ok. 
• This is also a shortened holiday week for trading with Wednesday being closed due to New Year’s Day. 
• SPX remains firmly overbought and can continue to do so for an extended period of time. 
• VIX spiked higher to 13.56 yesterday. 
• Trend-line support off of the October lows lies at 1787 – and currently out of reach for the bears. 
• There is absolutely no reason at all to be short this market. 
• Markets don’t care about the economy nor earnings. That is not what is driving them. The markets only care about what the Fed is doing to keep equities propped up. 

My Opinions & Trades:

• Sold KEY at $13.37 yesterday for a 1.9% gain. 
• Added one additional position yesterday to the portfolio. 
• Remain long ICE at $219.62, FLS at 72.25, RCL at 44.46, TRMB at 33.15, LAMR 51.18. 
• I expect to add 1-2 new positions today. 
• Long 60% / Cash 40% 
• Join me each day for all my real-time trades and alerts in the SharePlanner Splash Zone

Chart for SPX: