It’s unclear who will win this battle ultimately. The action may just prove a skirmish but I believe this 7-year bull market is over.

Its clear bulls won’t give up the ghost without a fight and we’ve seen this since the summer of 2015. Recently U.S. markets have declined with building momentum only to see temporary light volume short squeezes save the markets from a major turnover. But the turnover has been prominent for all to see.

This week for example markets started off with a light volume bullish roar Monday only to see a quick heavier volume reversal once again. The Fed Minutes Wednesday revealed a hawkish Fed ready to raise interest rates, confirmed again by Fed Governor’s Dudley and Lacker chimed-in to warn interest rate hikes are “live” for June’s Fed Meeting.  

It would be foolish to once again underestimate bull’s enthusiasm to protect their long positions with another round of low volume short squeezes. Again, they’re running out of ammo and credibility.

Furthermore, economic data and positive earnings flow isn’t on the bull’s side, unless you believe beating much weak earnings estimates is a positive. And if you believe economic data has been positive well good luck to you. Remember, employment continues to be weak unless you believe jobs for hamburger flippers and part time workers is a positive sign of robust economic growth, then you’ve bought in the BS from the Fed and media nonsense.

Do you think I’m being too harsh? I’ve only just begun.

Stocks were weak once again but bulls managed to pull off some dip buying to make things look more respectable.

Below is the heat map from Finviz reflecting those ETF market sectors moving higher (green) and falling (red). Dependent on the day (green) may mean leveraged inverse or leveraged short (red). 

Volume increased while breadth per the WSJ was negative once again.

Chart Of The Day