STOCK MARKET BEARISH -- SHORT -- CAUTION -- TURN MAY BE IMMINENT

Keybot the Quant remains short as equities continue floating higher. The algo is humming along all week without printing any numbers. The metrics for the algo are moving flat this week indicating an ongoing bull-bear struggle. The bears need weaker financials and/or higher volatility but neither is cooperating. The bulls need higher utilities, copper and/or commodities to verify the market upside, but copper and commodities are in the tank the last couple days. The key is likely utilities.  UTIL 508.47 remains key for today but at the closing bell this number will change to 503.04, a much easier threshold for the bulls to cross and verify the market upside (UTIL is at 503.76). The UTIL 503.04 will remain an important bull-bear line in the sand for all of next week. Watch utes closely today. If UTIL closes under 503, the bears will receive the nod come Monday morning. If UTIL prints above 503 at the closing bell, this sets up next week to be a bullish confirmation of the upside for equities. Note how the Wall Street algo's are already keying in on the UTIL 503.04 number and used it as support all day yesterday.

So the bulls need to push above UTIL 508.47 today, or 503.04 at the closing bell, to likely cause Keybot to flip long. Bears need XLF 20.50 and/or VIX 14.06 to lock in downside selling. For the SPX starting at new all-time highs at 1791, the bulls only need to touch the 1792 handle and the upside party continues with a move to 1800 on tap. The bears need to push under 1780 to gain downside mojo.  A move through 1781-1790 is sideways action. S&P futures are +2 about 4-1/2 hours ahead of the opening bell favoring the bulls.

11/17/13; 7:00 PM EST =

11/10/13; 7:00 PM EST = +30; signal line is +42