More range bound trading ahead

Yesterday I said I though we could go a little higher today and that's just what happened, with the Dow gaining 33 to close at 12,427.  In fact, nearly the entire day was above what is now the 12,390 support level and every day that goes by staying above that makes the support stronger.  And that number is right around the daily pivot (12,395) making it stronger still.  Also we note that the Dow volume has been increasing three days in a row now.  The fact that yesterday's doji resolved to the upside is also technically bullish.

Turning to the VIX, it tested its own support at 16.5 for the third time in four sessions, and it held, closing not much higher than that at 16.90 today.  This suggests that the VIX doesn't have much lower to go from here, implying that the short term upside for stocks may be limited.

Also on the downside, the futures are all running lower this evening at 1:20 AM EDT, off by 0.13% to 0.19%.  The negative bias was reinforced when the Bank of Japan news hit just after midnight Eastern.  And we are now exiting the historically bullish early part of April.

So overall, my feeling about tomorrow is about the same as it was last night for today.  Some mixed messages in the data and no strong forces guiding us in either direction.  To the contrary, we have a VIX indicating limited upside for stocks, and a strengthening support level at 12,390 indicating limited downside for stocks.

That all makes for another tough call.  My instinct right now says we may go a bit lower tomorrow but once again, I'm not looking for either large gains or declines.

Trades

Nothing in my trading account but today I unloaded my position in Clearwire (CLWR) that I held in my IRA for a small profit.  CLWR put in a hanging man today right at the top of its recent trading range after a big three day run-up.  It's looking ready to go lower tomorrow.