The Trump news de jour was the likelihood of a debt ceiling vote NOT happening before the deadline, and the media loves to portray this as a time bomb for the markets. I don’t believe it, and neither did the market today.

The QQQ had a rough morning sliding below Tuesday’s low and filling the gap from Tuesday morning which is where it abruptly turned around. This is why so many traders focus on ‘unfilled gaps’.

It was hard to get too concerned about the weakness in the QQQ when the IWM was trading up on the day and over the highs of the last two days.

As I’ve been saying, don’t get too concerned about or trust the moves in any one index if the other are not following along decisively.

And if the move is based on something the president said, think twice before you trade.

The real important news of the day was in AMZN’s announcement that as soon as Monday it will be cutting prices on its Whole Foods (WFM) best selling grocery staples!

Additionally, Amazon Prime members will soon enjoy a host of discounts and benefits at Whole foods.

This naturally sent the Consumer Staples ETF, XLP plunging! This is because WMT and COST collectively make up over 10% of XLP, and they’re both expected to get hurt by AMZN’s pricing pressure.

This news comes on the same day that Sears (SHLD) announced miserable sales numbers (comparable stores -9.4%), and that it was on track to complete the closing over 300 stores in 2017!

Is this what’s next for Walmart and Costco?

I doubt it, but perhaps they should consider cross honoring the Amazon prime member discounts in their stores the same way many retailers do with coupons.

This also raises an interesting question for the market technicians…

A declining XLP could be interpreted as reflecting a weak consumer and therefore bearish news for the market. I don’t think lower prices and a better shopping experience at Whole Foods thanks to AMZN describes nor should it be considered, a ‘weaker consumer’.