With all that said, it won't mean much if there if the news coming out of Washington and the China delegation is that a deal was made. Instead, price action will soar higher and nullify this pattern. 

Heck, perhaps if the Chinese eats two cookies instead of one at lunch today, it will probably be worth 20 additional points on SPX. 

The bulls can still continue to push the market higher, but it will have to overcome the market weakness in six of the last nine weeks.  

The headlines risk is crazy! Let's just get that out of the way. I've been caught with my pants down, and I don't mean figuratively...I literally mean literally. I swear the Trump Tweets come at the worst possible time! 

Nonetheless, the market still hovers 1.5% below all time highs about, and it wouldn't take much for the bulls to push right through. 

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in July indicates that the labor market remains strong and that economic activity has been rising at a moderate rate. Job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Although household spending has been rising at a strong pace, business fixed investment and exports have weakened. On a 12-month basis, overall inflation and inflation for items other than food and energy are running below 2 percent. Market-based measures of inflation compensation remain low; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations are little changed.