SPX opened higher this morning and traded up to $1958, but then started a steady decline and closed at its low for the day - not a good sign. SPX closed down $16 at $1932 and RUT lost $3 to close at $1034. SPX reached $1940 on 1/29 after hitting the correction low on 1/20. Then SPX turned and set a new lower low on 2/11 at $1829. That is why many technical analysts were watching for the resistance at $1940 to be broken. SPX did indeed have three closes above $1940 last week, but it couldn't hold those levels today. Volatility tacked on almost a point with the VIX closing at 20.6%. Trading volume was up a bit with 2.7 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading today. Trading rose 0.6% on the NYSE but dropped 2% on NASDAQ.

The Chicago PMI issued its February report at 47.6, down from 55.6. Pending home sales declined 2.5% in January, down from December's +0.9%.

The jobs report will issue on Friday, but it seems early for the market to be stalling in advance of that report. Maybe the fundamental issue is that there aren't sufficient strong economic data to fuel a bull market. On the other hand, I don't think the data are weak enough to justify a bear market. Maybe the sideways thrashing back and forth will be the norm, at least until we get the elections behind us.