STOCK MARKET BULLISH -- LONG -- CAUTION -- TURN MAY BE IMMINENT

Keybot the Quant remains long but continues champing at the bit to go short. Thwack. Whack. Boof. The bulls and bears keep battling. Utilities tell you the market story right now. UTIL came up to exactly test the 880.50 at 10:45 AM EST and was spanked down. The algorithm told you that level ahead of time. The drama did not stop there. UTIL came up for a second try, and succeeded, only to fall on its sword and drop below 880.50 again, then another shot of morphine and UTIL popped-up again, above, 880.50, but then fell back down onto the gurney. UTIL slipping below 880.50 to end the day at 879.69 in the bear camp is a huge bear win despite the big rally in stocks.

However, the drama will likely continue this week. The UTIL 880.50 bull-bear line in the sand remains in play for all of this week. If UTIL remains below 880.50 and begins trending lower and lower, the stock market will become extremely sick and for a very long time. If UTIL pops back above 880.50 and can stay above there all of this week, there is nothing but blue skies and rainbows ahead with more new record highs in equities.

The Keybot the quant algorithm wants to go short but the internal parameters are not yet fully latched to permit the move, so the model remains in bull mode. This has been going on for several days; sometimes it is like herding kittens for the quant. If the S&P 500 drops below 3268, Keybot will likely flip short, hence the imminent turn notation is in the title line. The SPX begins the Tuesday trading session at 3288 so bears will need 20 negative points. S&P futures are down -6 about 3 hours before the opening bell.

It is that simple. The direction of the stock market is determined by UTIL above 880.50 for the bulls to win going forward, or, SPX below 3268 for the bears to win. Another day of festivities is set to begin.

1/19/20; 7:00 PM EST =
1/17/20; 10:00 AM EST =
1/17/20; 9:00 AM EST =
1/13/20; 3:51 PM EST = +72; signal line is +74 but algorithm remains long

1/13/20; 2:32 PM EST = +88; signal line is +75

1/13/20; 1:02 PM EST = +72; signal line is +75 but algorithm remains long

1/13/20; 12:37 PM EST = +88; signal line is +76

1/12/20; 7:00 PM EST = +72; signal line is +76 but algorithm remains long