Geopolitical Comments Rule Market Direction

OKAY THEN... Whereas earlier this morning, calming comments from Putin goosed the equity indices higher (see below), follow-up comments by the NATO Secretary General.

General, who says... "instead of de-escalating the conflict, Russia continues to destabilize Ukraine and its support for separatists grows in scale and sophistication" have put the kabash on prices during the past 15 minutes.

After making an earlier session marginal new-recovery high, the e-SPU has since plunged to test micro support at 1912.75, which if violated and sustained, should trigger downside continuation towards a revisit of yesterday's low at 1903.

During the last 20-25 minutes of pre-open action, the e-SPU has popped from 1919 to 1925, apparently in reaction to comments by Russia's Putin who said he discussed ending the fighting in Ukraine with leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan.

That said, purely from a technical perspective, the strength looks like a secondary recovery-rally leg off of yesterday's low at 1903, which projects to 1930-1934 prior to my expectation of the resumption of dominant near-term down-trend weakness.

Only a sustained climb above 1937.50 will argue that a much more powerful recovery rally is in progress.