Friday’s unrelenting short-squeeze appeared headed to the 4421.50 target of the reverse pattern shown (inset). The run-up from Thursday’s low has yielded no interesting buying opportunities, since the pullbacks have been too shallow to bring the futures within the range of a ‘mechanical’ bid at either p or x. Impulse legs on the hourly chart have not been stellar, however, implying the rally is probably not destined for greatness. Regardless, if the move pops through ‘D’ with sufficient force, that would increase the likelihood that new record highs are coming. Bears had been slogging painfully lower for nearly three weeks, gaining by inches, but on Friday they were no match for short-covering that seemed hell-bent on stealing it all back in mere days. ______ UPDATE (Mar 1, 11:50 p.m.): It’s not exactly a sign of good health that the March futures have struggled for three days to achieve an easy rally target. Even so, we won’t count out the chimps charged with keeping this hoax alive and with making life as difficult as possible for those who would seek to profit  from a suspected bear market. Let’s move to the sidelines for now.