Bears were winning Wednesday’s tug-of-war in the early going, but when their heels started slipping and sliding around 1:00 p.m., they were doomed to a dunking in the losers’ mud pit. There was no nefarious ‘They’ or Plunge Protection Team causing this to happen, either, only themselves — with increasingly desperate spasms of short-covering that swung the Dow 360 points off the intraday low.

Those who used Amazon as a telltale as I’ve suggested might have bailed out around 1:57 p.m., when the stock lurched above some prior peaks on its way to a spectacular, 30-point reversal. At the bell, the futures looked bound for at least 1957.38, a Hidden Pivot midpoint 24 points above Wednesday’s settlement price. That’s my minimum upside projection for Thursday, but if it’s brushed aside, look for the run-up to continue to at least 1992.69, or possibly even 2028.00 over the near-term.

Night owls should use the 1946.50 peak that I’ve labeled to fashion a low-risk entry point if the opportunity should arise.  A bc-type pullback from a point or two above that peak could set up a ‘camouflage’ entry with the potential to get you aboard with risk tightly controlled.  I’ve sketched this hypothetically, but the actual trigger would come, not on the daily chart as shown, but on one-  or three-minute bars. _______ UPDATE (2:20 a.m. EST): Asian stocks are getting slammed, tilting the odds in favor of bears. For further details, check  The Morning Line, above. _______ UPDATE (11:21 a.m.): DaBoyz needed to maneuver the futures only ten points lower to exhaust sellers. This was our first hint that today would be a nothing day.  And so it has been so far — boring and unworthy of our close attention.