Written by Gary

The DOW touched 290 earlier and volume didn't totally fall off as expected pushing equities fractionally higher. WTI oil is trending down and looks to put a cap on any further market gains today.

By noon the averages were still elevated, but trading sideways while investors watch the u.s. dollar trade lower. The bear is watching.

I have been saying that oil is heading lower and now Reuter's backs my opinion up. ZeroHedge writes, For those hoping that the recent brief dip in Brent crude below $50 – most notably Venezuela's intrepid socialist leader Nicolas Maduro whose numbered days get shorter with every day Brent closes red, and countless bondholders of junk- debt capitalized shale companies – would mean that Saudi Arabia's vendetta against OPEC would finally be put on hiatus, we have bad news: the vendetta just wen nuclear because as Reuters reports, there is “no chance of OPEC output cut.”

Our medium term indicators are leaning towards sell portfolio of non-performers at the midday and the session market direction meter is 32 % bullish. We remain mostly conservatively bullish, neutral in other words. Right now now I am getting very concerned any downtrend could get very aggressive in the short-term and any volatility may also promote sudden reversals. The SP500 MACD has turned flat, but remains just above zero at +0.52. I would advise caution in taking any position during this uncertain period and I hope you have returned your ‘dogs' to the pound.

Having some cash on hand now is not a bad strategy as market changes are happening everyday. As of now, I do not see any leading indicators that are warnings of a ‘long-term' reversal in the near-term. There may be one later in 2015, but any market fluctuations we see now are more of a internal market rectification than a bear market.

Investing.com members' sentiments are 51 % Bearish.