In the Spanish Civil war a fascist Colonel seized the Alcazar of Toledo when Franco led a military rebellion against the legal elected government.  Republicans battered the Alcazar to pieces for weeks attempting to dislodge the fascists.  Hundreds of lives were traded on each side.  After some weeks of this the Colonel reported on the state of the siege:  “Sin novedad en el Alcazar” (No news of interest from the Alcazar.)  This was idolized as the height of sardonic courage.

The word from the market front this week is:  Sin novedades de la bolsa.  No news of interest from the market.  The nine day upwave has stalled at the absolutely predictable resistance and has gone sideways for four days.  Anytime you have a sidewave you wait for the breakout.  Readers will remember that several weeks ago we predicted that the congestion pattern would continue.  Resolution of this little wave may give us a hint as to future direction, but for the moment we expect more of the same and frankly we are waiting for the other shoe to drop — or that is, the next downwave.

Goldman just resported that their trading for the quarter was unprofitable, hedge funds are pulling back and one trader said there was no asset class worth investing in.  What he meant was that there are no operating trends.  The entire market is sideways and only the preternaturally talented make money in markets of this cast.