There are two strong barriers to the S&P's rise, although the space between current levels and those barriers is still about 50 points away. One of them is the descending trendline (which defined the lower boundary of the channel the S&P was in prior to its Autumn 2008 break) and the other is the 38.2% retracement level.

Barring some serious selling, I really see little in the way of the S&P clawing its way back to the 4-digits. At the same time, as I am going through hundreds of charts in my core watch list, I am seeing nothing but bearish opportunities. So it's a puzzling situation.

Looks like we're having a real barn-burner today. The Dow seems to be toggling between down 1 point and up 1 point. I'm not sure how much more of this excitement I can stand.

My week full o' meetings continues, so maybe it's a good thing the market is so dead boring. At least I've provided a place for you guys to chat about the weather and last night's bowling tournament.