The stock market has been acting so punk lately that it’s time to take a hard look at the quite bullish targets I’ve put out over the last couple of months. Most immediately, there’s the 2313.50 bull-market benchmark shown. Is it still viable? In theory, yes, since the futures would need to fall a further 70 points to negate the point ‘C’ low of the pattern. In practice, however, the tired slog of the last two weeks is like that ominous cough in the second reel of a Hollywood melodrama.  Even Goldman Sachs is having second thoughts, warning investors to stay out of stocks for the next three months.  The trouble is, there are no investors in this market, only heedless speculators playing with funny money gifted them by the central bank. Do they even care whether U.S. corporate earnings have declined for four consecutive quarters? Not as far as we could tell — at least until earlier this month, when the broad averages began a wretched limp sideways after a nearly parabolic rise. It still looks like a consolidation nonetheless, and the daily chart is in fact on a ‘mechanical’ buy signal with the pullback to the red line (see inset). We’ll let the opportunity pass, however, since the canny dirtballs at Goldman may be more concerned than they are letting on.

Perhaps we’re just feeling down because Trevor Story, the Colorado Rockies’ phenomenal rookie shortstop, injured his thumb and will be out for the rest of the season. The Rockies are our team, and with Story out of the lineup, their hopes of a wild-card berth may have gone down the tubes.  But putting baseball blues aside, it just feels like there’s something really nasty lurking in the wings.  Maybe it has to do with Trump, whose mere presence in the 2016 presidential race will be blamed for whatever it is the stock market may be about to do. In any event, we’ll let the E-Mini S&Ps fall to the green line before attempting a more finely nuanced judgment. Technically speaking, the futures would look even more enticing at that price. As such, any letdown would add to the inescapable feeling that a stock market that has been long overdue for a comeuppance is about to get one. _______ UPDATE (August 4, 9:14 p.m. EDT): It may have looked like a failed rally, but this morning’s poke on the opening bar generated a bullish impulse leg on the hourly chart by exceeding a sharp external peak at 2164.00 created Tuesday on the way down. This means that, barring unsettling news overnight, you should trade with a bullish bias and a 2173.00 target. That’s a minor Hidden Pivot resistance, and it can be found on the hourly chart using these coordinates: A=2145.25 (8/3 at 4:00 a.m.); B=2164.25 (8/4 at 8:00 a.m.); and C=2154.00.