Before the Open (Apr 1)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed (several markets were closed). Japan dropped 2.1%. Europe was closed for an extended Easter break. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are down. Silver is down, gold is up.
I don’t have anything to add to the report I wrote and posted this weekend because nothing happened overnight to change anything. This is somewhat of an important week because all the indexes (except $RUT & $SML) broke out of their consolidation patterns and closed at new highs. Within a range, it doesn’t matter if the market moves up or down and lacks conviction behind the moves. But when a breakout attempt is made, we want to see volume pick up, enthusiasm pick up and most of all, some follow through to separate itself from the range. With Thursday’s closes, the indexes no longer have the liberty to bounce around, so the pressure is on to prove the moves weren’t a dud. But unfortunately with Europe being closed, the market may decide to do nothing for a day.
I think we’ll get a decent trending move soon. Either the market will follow through and the S&P will rally up to 1600, or last week’s breakout attempt will prove to be false and the S&P will drop to the low 1500’s. If the next move is up, I’ll want to see some improvement from several breadth indicators which are lagging.
The trend on all time frames is up, but in the near term the market has some proving today. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers