Before the Open (May 19)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across the board – there were several 1, 2 and 3% losers. Europe is currently down – most indexes have lost at least 2%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market. This comes off a day the market closed as bad as it’s been in a long time. On 4 stocks in the S&P 1500 closed in the upper 20% of their intraday range while 1189 closed in the bottom 20%. The AD Line was 9-to-1 in favor of decliners.
The market is melting down. After going on many long winning streaks during the 13-month uptrend, it’s now been 3 weeks since the market moved up on consecutive days. Meanwhile 8 of the last 11 days have been down.
Here’s the S&P 15-min chart with remaining unfilled gaps highlighted. Today’s open will be somewhere near the May 7 close.

You guys know me. I call it as I see it. Near term sentiment is to the downside, and until the market can put in several strong up days which suggests the bulls aren’t dead yet, I’m shorting bounces. Whether we can buy a dip soon remains to be seen. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings Reports
this week’s Economic Numbers