Navigate the Stock Market: January 2026

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Snow … GDP … Jobless Claims … KC Fed Manufacturing ... PCE Prices … Consumer Spending … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

CONSUMER SPENDING / PCE PRICES (CNN)
“A shutdown-delayed report from the Commerce Department showed that spending rose 0.5% from October, above economists’ expectations for a 0.4% gain… The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the inflation gauge the Federal Reserve uses for its 2% target rate — rose 0.2% on a monthly basis, which brought the annual rate to 2.8%, unchanged from the September rate that was reported last month.” Story at…
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/22/economy/us-pce-consumer-spending-inflation-october-november

JOBLESS CLAIMS (WSJ)
“U.S. jobless claims ticked slightly higher last week but remain subdued, signaling little reason to fret that the labor market has worsened abruptly.
The number of people who made fresh filings for unemployment benefits rose to 200,000 in the week through Jan. 17…” Story at…
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/jobless-claims-show-no-red-flags-401ef600?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqfK1ex_2Dd8sDeLqwO5YKjkyLCaO3wde8uXyxUh4IjfMqtzu_nAkHWc6FoIzL8%3D&gaa_ts=6972bcd1&gaa_sig=VCGcZijzm_QyP-aypS1OanmSOSJ8avPDfj8uVAfLxnhanDxvaooUDtlZX0BX9vtessaggF4e-BeP6BsQ4AynFQ%3D%3D

GDP (Real Clear Markets)
“This week’s revision of third-quarter GDP offers early but compelling evidence that the long-awaited Trump manufacturing boom is beginning to take shape… Real GDP growth for the quarter was revised up to a strong 4.4 percent annualized rate.” Story
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/01/22/gdp_data_reveal_green_shoots_for_the_trump_manufacturing_boom_1160331.html

KC FED MANUFACTURING (Kansas City FED)
“Tenth District manufacturing activity was unchanged, and expectations for future activity cooled but remained expansionary. Prices paid for raw materials increased further this month, while finished product prices growth cooled.” Report at…
https://www.kansascityfed.org/surveys/manufacturing-survey/tenth-district-manufacturing-activity-was-unchanged-in-january/

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS
-Thursday the S&P 500 rose about 0.6% to 6913.
-VIX declined about 7% to 15.64.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury declined to 4.247% (compared to about this time prior market day).

MY TRADING POSITIONS
XLK – Added 11/26/2025 & 12/1/2025
SPY – Added 12/1/2025.
NVDA – Added a small position 12/1/2025.
SSO – Added 1/7/2026; Increased the position 1/21/2026

CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 5 gave Bear-signs and 15 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)

TODAY’S COMMENT
The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators was unchanged at +10 (10 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a BULLISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations reversed higher a BULLISH sign.

We still have the bearish rising wedge on the chart. I’ve shown it in red. The top of the rising wedge on the above chart is around 7,000. We need to see the S&P 500 break above that level to feel better about markets. That will be an important test.

BOTTOM LINE
I’m bullish and fully invested.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

The top ranked ETF receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading ETF.
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
http://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/exchange-traded-funds-etf-ranking.html

DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM RANKING OF THE DOW 30 STOCKS (Ranked Daily)

The top ranked Stock receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading Stock.
For more details, see NTSM Page at…
https://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/a-system-for-trading-dow-30-stocks-my_8.html

THURSDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

My basket of Market Internals improved to BUY. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)

My invested position is about 65% stocks, including stock mutual funds and ETFs (although I need to re-calculate this number). 50% invested in stocks is a normal, conservative position for a retiree. (75% is my max stock allocation when I am confident that markets will continue higher; 30% in stocks is my Bear market position.)

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here although I don’t trade as much as I used to. When I see bullish signs, I add a lot more stocks to the portfolio, usually by using an S&P 500 ETF as I did back in October 2022 and 2023.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Construction Spending … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

It was another busy day so today’s post is later than usual.

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.

“Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch, former manager of Fidelity’s Magellan® fund.

"This is maybe the most dangerous market of my career, and that includes 1987's crash, that includes the savings and loan debacle market of the early '90s, that includes the 1999 to 2009 lost decade in the S&P 500 in the dot-com bubble. This is the most difficult market of my 45 years." - Bill Smead, Smead Value Fund (SMVLX), May 2025.”

“You are living in a world in which the Indiana Hoosiers are your college football national champions. I’m not sure how to explain how crazy this is. It’s like going down to the basement and finding the cat singing opera and folding laundry.” – Jason Gay, Sports Columnist, WSJ.

TRUMP BACKS OFF (Yahoo Finance)
“US stocks spiked on Wednesday after President Trump announced the US and NATO "formed the framework of a future deal" on Greenland and called off threatened tariffs on European nations, just days after he roiled markets with the threats.” Story at…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/stock-market-today-dow-surges-550-points-sp-500-nasdaq-jump-as-trump-backs-off-greenland-tariff-threats-210059834.html
My cmt: Wow! The Art of the Deal – Threaten WW III, but settle for bases and operational freedom even though the US already had those capabilities.

“Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland. Right now, the United States has one base in a very remote corner of the island. But the agreement allows it to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.” Story at…
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html

CONSTRUCTION SPENDING (RTT News)
“The Commerce Department said construction spending climbed by 0.5 percent to an annual rate of $2.175 trillion in October after falling by 0.6 percent to an annual rate of $2.164 trillion in September. Economists had expected construction spending to inch up by 0.1 percent.” Story at…
https://www.rttnews.com/3612212/u-s-construction-spending-climbs-much-more-than-expected-in-october.aspx

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS
-Wednesday the S&P 500 rose about 1.2% to 6876.
-VIX declined about 16% to 16.90.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury declined to 4.257% (compared to about this time prior market day).

MY TRADING POSITIONS
XLK – Added 11/26/2025 & 12/1/2025
SPY – Added 12/1/2025.
NVDA – Added a small position 12/1/2025.
SSO – Added 1/7/2026; Increased the position 1/21/2026

CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 5 gave Bear-signs and 15 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)

TODAY’S COMMENT
Trump reversed course again and markets rebounded.

The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators improved from +4 to +10 (10 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a BULLISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations continued down a bearish sign, although the upward move of the daily number looks more important.

We still have the bearish rising wedge on the chart. I’ve shown it in red. The top of the rising wedge on the above chart is around 7,000. We need to see the S&P 500 break above that level to feel better about markets. That will be an important test.

Tuesday was a statistically significant up-day. That just means that the price-volume move exceeded my statistical parameters. Statistics show that a statistically-significant, up-day is followed by a down-day about 60% of the time.

Still, I remain bullish and I added to my SSO position today. It was too late in the day to post before I added to the position.

BOTTOM LINE
I’m cautiously bullish and fully invested.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

My basket of Market Internals improved, but remained HOLD. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Impeach Trump – Blackmailing Europe is an Act of War … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

It was a busy day so today’s post is later than usual.

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.

“Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch, former manager of Fidelity’s Magellan® fund.

"This is maybe the most dangerous market of my career, and that includes 1987's crash, that includes the savings and loan debacle market of the early '90s, that includes the 1999 to 2009 lost decade in the S&P 500 in the dot-com bubble. This is the most difficult market of my 45 years." - Bill Smead, Smead Value Fund (SMVLX), May 2025.”

TRUMP THE CLIMATE NONENTITY (WSJ-Excerpt)
“The New York Times is always entertaining when it grapples, or fails to grapple, with climate change, the scale of which simply eludes it.
It says of Donald Trump, “The president’s embrace of fossil fuels . . . will make it hard to keep warming at safe levels.” The reality: U.S. election outcomes are completely invisible in the climate data. Even very large events, such as Covid or the collapse of Soviet industry, at most leave a noticeable indent only on the varying annual rate of emissions increase, not overall atmospheric CO2.

The largest human CO2 event in history, the emergence of China as an industrial power, on an emissions graph appears only as a continuation of an uninterrupted upward trend since the Industrial Revolution… Last April came a small but telling explosion in the climate community. On behalf of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, a former John Kerry climate aide, Varun Sivaram, inaugurated a program dedicated to “climate realism.” It conceded many long-obvious points: U.S. emissions have become too small a share of the global total to affect the climate outcome...
…Meanwhile, Mr. Trump at least can hope to be a climate footnote in place of the enlarged role the Times tries to assign him. Ironically, he will share the footnote with his most frothing Democratic critic, Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker: Both men have been working lately to advance carbon-free nuclear.” – Holman Jenkins, Jr., editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. Commentary at…
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-the-climate-nonentity-09e59dff

TRUST ERODES IN GOVERNMENT (WSJ- Letters)
“Karl Rove makes a persuasive case that many of the standard measures used to judge a year—economic growth, employment, inflation, crime—don’t justify the level of public unease (“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2025,” op-ed, Dec. 30). Yet something else lies at the center of that discontent.
Trust erodes when governance appears transactional rather than principled. When pardons, tax policy and access to power seem tied to loyalty or financial benefit, citizens begin to doubt individual decisions and the fairness of the system itself. No amount of messaging will resolve that; only honesty and transparency can.” - Lori Devlin

TRUMP BLACKMAILS EUROPE (BBC)
“Donald Trump has vowed to "100%" follow through on his threat to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose his demand to take control of Greenland. European allies have rallied around Greenland's sovereignty. Denmark's foreign minister emphasised [sic] the US president cannot threaten his way to ownership of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.” Story at…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g5345ylk0o
My cmt: This is an act of war. Trump should be impeached.

TRUMP LINKS GREENLAND THREATS TO MISSING OUT ON NOBEL PRIZE (WSJ)
“Denmark dispatched additional troops to Greenland on Monday as President Trump added a new dimension to his pursuit of the Danish island, telling Norway that he no longer needed to think “purely of peace” after not winning the Nobel Peace Prize.” Story at…
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/trump-links-greenland-threats-to-missing-out-on-nobel-prize-3076eecc?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqcUF1tKWuEwCaz2sAu0dmpJvWxDc0KJPSBban8xx4PxpR0DeZaFItEPkQn9x-c%3D&gaa_ts=696fd214&gaa_sig=D4QN5Z-vh3xpQe1XO6XQAjSCKSrFwidFSZipOi9YqsdKD3dA5MJIcaNdcYPYmS7nHdfdTL1DCHX6IvaYdw7dlw%3D%3D’
My cmt: This is an act of insanity. Trump should be institutionalized.

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS
-Tuesday the S&P 500 declined about 2.1% to 6797.
-VIX rose about 27% to 20.09.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.287% (compared to about this time prior market day).

MY TRADING POSITIONS
XLK – Added 11/26/2025 & 12/1/2025
SPY – Added 12/1/2025.
NVDA – Added a small position 12/1/2025.
SSO – Added 1/7/2026.

CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 8 gave Bear-signs and 12 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)

TODAY’S COMMENT
On Friday there were only 2 bear signs, but they were significant: (1) There was a bearish crossover in MACD. (2) The other was that 100% of the ETF’s I track are now above their 120-dMAs. That often indicates a top, although the indicator is not a timely signal, nor does it tell us if it is an important top.

Additionally, the S&P 500 chart exhibited a rising wedge, a bearish topping signal. Over the weekend, I wrote myself a note – “Sell SSO?” It isn’t good to hold leveraged positions in downturns. Unfortunately, we were Trumped by more Tariffs. I am holding SSO for a day or so to see how this shakes out.

The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators declined from +19 to +4 (4 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a NEUTRAL indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations reversed down a bearish sign.

The 50-dMA is now 6830 and the S&P 500 broke below that level in the afternoon and closed at 6797, about 0.5% below the 50-day. That’s a concern if the index closes below its 50-day Wednesday.

There were a few bullish signs:
-Tuesday was a statistically significant down-day. That just means that the price-volume move exceeded my statistical parameters. Statistics show that a statistically-significant, down-day is followed by an up-day about 60% of the time.
-Bollinger Bands are oversold.
-Today’s large move down triggered my Panic indicator. At tops, this is a bearish indicator; at bottoms, it is bullish. What is it now? Hard to say, but for now I’ll call it bullish. If the markets continue lower then I’ll have to change my view.

If markets do continue down, the S&P 500 is about 0.8% above its 100-dMA. A drop to the 200-dMA would be a 7% decline.

BOTTOM LINE
The S&P 500 is close to its lower trendline and the 100-dMA. I think markets go up from here. I’m cautiously bullish and fully invested, but I’ll be watching the markets closely. Futures are higher as I write this – let’s hope it stays that way.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM RANKING OF THE DOW 30 STOCKS (Ranked Daily)

TUESDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

My basket of Market Internals declined to HOLD. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)

My invested position is about 60% stocks, including stock mutual funds and ETFs (although I should calculate this number). 50% invested in stocks is a normal, conservative position for a retiree. (75% is my max stock allocation when I am confident that markets will continue higher; 30% in stocks is my Bear market position.)

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here although I don’t trade as much as I used to. When I see bullish signs, I add a lot more stocks to the portfolio, usually by using an S&P 500 ETF as I did back in October 2022 and 2023.

Friday, January 16, 2026

Trump’s Greenland Insanity … Industrial Production … NAHB Housing … … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

TODAY’S COMMENT
The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators remained +19 (19 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a BULLISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations continued higher, a BULLISH sign.

The Over-bought/Oversold Ratio cleared its overbought indication from yesterday and is now neutral. This bearish indicator was replaced with another bear indicator.

Like yesterday, today there were only 2 bear signs, but they are different ones than yesterday: (1) Today, there was a bearish crossover in MACD. (2) The other is shown in the chart below; 100% of the ETF’s I track are now above their 120-dMAs. As the chart shows, that often indicates a top, although the indicator is not a timely signal, nor does it tell us if it is an important top.

As I noted yesterday, given the large number of bull indicators, the two bear signs are not compelling; however, there is another concern. I added red, short-term trend lines in the “Summary of 50 Indicator Spread” chart above. That creates a bearish Rising Wedge pattern in the chart. That is a good top indicator too. We’ll need to pay attention in the next week or two. The S&P 500 is about 3% above its 100-dMA. My guess is that if we do see some market weakness, a trip to the 100-dMA is likely. A drop to the 200-dMA would be a 9% decline and that is also possible, though less likely.

BOTTOM LINE
I’m bullish and fully invested, but I’ll be watching the markets closely.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

My basket of Market Internals remained BUY. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)

Thursday, January 15, 2026

NY Fed Manufacturing … Philly Fed … Jobless Claims … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.

“Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch, former manager of Fidelity’s Magellan® fund.

"This is maybe the most dangerous market of my career, and that includes 1987's crash, that includes the savings and loan debacle market of the early '90s, that includes the 1999 to 2009 lost decade in the S&P 500 in the dot-com bubble. This is the most difficult market of my 45 years." - Bill Smead, Smead Value Fund (SMVLX), May 2025.”

“Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to rail against President Donald Trump's latest chaotic actions, warning that they could destabilize both the economy and the international order for no good reason. Tillis, who is retiring at the end of the year, has become increasingly outspoken against the president. Earlier this month, on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Tillis gave a floor speech condemning Trump's blanket clemency for the 1,500 people involved in the insurrection…"The thought of the United States taking a position that we would take Greenland ... is absurd," said Tillis. "Whoever told the president that this is a viable path? It doesn't make sense." Story at…
GOP senator says Trump is crossing a line in furious floor speech

“Pageant-queen-turned-Tr*mp-lawyer Lindsey Halligan refuses to exit the stage. And now, she’s turned to flat out gaslighting a judge to try keep her job. In blistering terms, the Justice Department told a federal judge Tuesday that Halligan remains the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia, even though a recent court ruling has disqualified her.” Story at…
Pageant-queen-turned-Tr*mp lawyer Lindsey Halligan refuses to exit the stage again & her excuse is utterly ridiculous
My cmt: Unreal. The Courts have ruled on Halligan and another Trump appointee that they were not legally appointed as US Attorneys and cannot serve. They refuse to leave?

NY FED MANUFACTURING (Central NY Business Journal)
“The general-business conditions index of the Empire State Manufacturing Survey rose 11 points to 7.7 in January.
The index fell 23 points to -3.9 in December after climbing 8 points to 18.7 in November. Based on firms responding to the survey, the January reading indicates business activity “rose modestly” in New York State, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its Thursday announcement.” Story at…
https://www.cnybj.com/new-york-manufacturing-index-climbs-back-into-positive-territory-in-january/

PHILLY FED (Seeking Alpha)
“The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index strengthened to 12.6 in January, topping the -3.5 consensus, from -8.8 prior (revised from -10.9), according to data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday.” Story at…
https://seekingalpha.com/news/4539381-philly-fed-manufacturing-index-rises-in-january-on-strong-new-orders
less claims

INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS (AP News)
“Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as U.S. layoffs remain low despite growing concern about a weakening job market. U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 10 fell by 9,000 to 198,000, down from 207,000 the previous week…” Story at…
https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-4faf92d3a195abf842aece3df88448cb

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS
-Thursday the S&P 500 rose about 0.3% to 6944.
-VIX declined about 5% to 15.84.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.166% (compared to about this time prior market day).

MY TRADING POSITIONS
XLK – Added 11/26/2025 & 12/1/2025
SPY – Added 12/1/2025.
NVDA – Added a small position 12/1/2025.
SSO – Added 1/7/2026.

CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 2 gave Bear-signs and 21 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)

TODAY’S COMMENT
The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators improved from +17 to +19 (19 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a BULLISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations continued higher, a BULLISH sign.

Today there were only 2 bear signs: (1) The Over-bought/Oversold Ratio is now overbought. (2) Utilities are outpacing the S&P 500 on a moving average basis. Given the large number of bull indicators, the two bear signs are not compelling.

BOTTOM LINE
I’m bullish and fully invested.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

My basket of Market Internals remained BUY. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

PPI … Retail Sales … Existing Home Sales … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.

“Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch, former manager of Fidelity’s Magellan® fund.

"This is maybe the most dangerous market of my career, and that includes 1987's crash, that includes the savings and loan debacle market of the early '90s, that includes the 1999 to 2009 lost decade in the S&P 500 in the dot-com bubble. This is the most difficult market of my 45 years." - Bill Smead, Smead Value Fund (SMVLX), May 2025.”

“The deficits in the United States and around the world are quite large. We don’t know when that’s going to bite. It will bite eventually because you can’t just keep on borrowing money endlessly.” – Jaie Diamond, CEO JP Morgan Chase

LEFTIST WOMAN FIRED FOR DOXING ICE AGENT (Western Journal)
“Jonathan Ross [ICE Officer who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis] is the man who Renee Good was in the process of harming -- perhaps intending to kill, even -- on the morning of Jan. 7. Faced with a split-second decision, he shot a woman who was using her car as a deadly weapon against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials … We now know who he is because of the gravity of the case and, thanks to an insufferable internet Karen who doxed him, where he lives. Only this time, it backfired. Now, she's the one out of a job, she's the one facing the consequences of doxing, and she's the one who's deleting her content. The agent, identified as Jonathan Ross, was hospitalized following the shooting…” Story at…
Leftist Woman Tries Doxxing ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Good, Instead Doxes Herself Creating Nightmare Scenario
“The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good during a January 7 encounter in Minneapolis suffered internal bleeding to the torso, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Newsweek on Wednesday.” Story at…
ICE agent suffered internal bleeding after Minneapolis shooting
My cmt: Given how much the Trump administration lies, one wonders if that means he had a bruise? More to come?

TRUMP TURNS ON WALL STREET (WSJ)
“Wall Street thought it had an ally in Donald Trump. He’s becoming more of an adversary.
The president largely delivered to investors last year, as his administration cut taxes, reduced spending and rolled back an aggressive tariff plan after it spooked markets. Now, after blindsiding Wall Street with a series of rapid-fire moves in the span of a week, Trump appears to be putting it on notice. He has sought to block large investors from buying houses, called for a cap on credit-card rates and announced restrictions on executive pay and stock buybacks.” Story at…
https://www.wsj.com/market-data/stocks?mod=md_home_overview_stk_main

PPI (CNN)
“US wholesale inflation picked up speed in November, pushed higher in part by fast-rising energy prices, according to shutdown-delayed data released Wednesday. The latest Producer Price Index report showed that prices rose 0.2% in November from the month before, resulting in an annual rate of 3%...” Story at…
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/economy/us-ppi-producer-price-wholesale-inflation-november-october

RETAIL SALES (ABC News)
“Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.6% in November, following a revised 0.1% decline October, according to the Commerce Department. The report was delayed more than a month because of the 43-day government shutdown.” Story at…
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/retail-sales-rose-expected-06-november-holiday-season-129200424

EXISTING HOME SALES (NAR)
“Existing-home sales increased by 5.1% in December, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Existing-Home Sales Report… "2025 was another tough year for homebuyers, marked by record-high home prices and historically low home sales,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "However, in the fourth quarter, conditions began improving, with lower mortgage rates and slower home price growth.” Press release at…
https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-existing-home-sales-report-shows-5-1-increase-in-december

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS
-Wednesday the S&P 500 declined about 0.5% to 6927.
-VIX rose about 5% to 18.53.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury declined to 4.136% (compared to about this time prior market day).

MY TRADING POSITIONS
XLK – Added 11/26/2025 & 12/1/2025
SPY – Added 12/1/2025.
NVDA – Added a small position 12/1/2025.
SSO – Added 1/7/2026.

CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 2 gave Bear-signs and 19 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)

TODAY’S COMMENT
The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators declined from +18 to +17 (17 more Bull indicators than Bear indicators), a BULLISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations continued higher, a BULLISH sign.

The daily internals have been positive over the last two days, especially that advancing issues have outpaced declining issues. Usually that results in an up-day the next day. Tomorrow should be higher for the S&P 500. As I write this, futures are mixed. We’ll see.

BOTTOM LINE
I’m bullish and fully invested.

ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:

My basket of Market Internals remained BUY. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.)