It was painful to watch bears struggle for yardage yesterday, even though they had the “best” bad news in months to help them out.  With the Guvmint’s $8,000 tax credit no longer available to home buyers, housing starts have of course collapsed.  This could not have surprised anyone save Kudlow and a few thousand economists, really, but it is in the nature of Wall Street to feign “shock” whenever such truly bad news crosses the tape.  When the dust had settled, however, the Dow was off just 133 points, well off the day’s lows; and the E-Mini S&Ps had yet to achieve our Hidden Pivot target at 1040.25, having gotten no lower than 1044.00.  I predicted a relapse to the target during yesterday’s weekly tutorial session — and it shall pass, I am sure, in the fullness of time — but the target itself holds less and less appeal with each new day’s failure to achieve it.  A 1038.75 stop-loss would be appropriate for traders who, bored out of their minds, are eager  to so “something” just to keep from rusting up.