OK, I'm convinced we're all victims of some giant conspiracy theory that's trying to torture us via the stock market. Today, for the eleventeenth time in less than two months, the major indices toyed with the idea of moving past a key support or resistance line and then reversed course. It's enough to make a nun curse. Ugh. Here's where we are.... for a short while today, the S&P 500 did manage to trade above the first of its key resistance lines at 1884. It did NOT, however, even get a chance to take a shot at the second one before rolling back under the key 1884 level. It looks like that 1884/1895 zone is still an effective ceiling, like it was last week, like it was in early April, like it was in mid-march, and like it was in early March. Don't get the wrong idea. The S&P 500 could still quite easily punch through that zone of resistance at get the bullish party started. As unwilling as the bulls have been to make a run for it, the bears haven't been any more willing to try and pull the rug out from underneath stocks either. The S&P 500 remains in a prime position to break out. It's just not getting over the hump, despite plenty of opportunities to do so. I suppose there's something of a silver lining with the stagnation - the longer the market just moves sideways, the stronger the breakout or breakdown (usually) is once it finally starts. Still, two months is a long enough time to wait. Just FYI, I'm going to lower the upper edge of the S&P 500's resistance zone to 1891. That seems to be closer to a meaningful level for the index. Right on cue, the Dow Jones Industrial Average brushed its ceiling at 16,625 and pulled back. Also right on cue, the NASDAQ Composite bumped into its falling resistance line and pulled back. Bottom line? Honestly, we're back to a 50/50 proposition. It would be just as meaningful for me to decide to be bullish or bearish based on a coin toss as it would be for me to tell you there was sound, chart-driven or data-driven reason we're bullish or bearish. Part of this tepidness I can attribute to the time of year, but a lot of it really has to do with the fact that traders are getting mixed messages on all fronts. We'll keep the analysis coming. I'm still sure some trade-worthy movement (and I don't even care which direction it is) is within reach. More Stars Align for Coal Remember how we were starting to fall back in love with coal stocks? We first mentioned the industry was showing signs of life back on April 8th, and have since watched these stocks collectively move higher, making good on their promise of a breakout effort. The Dow Jones Coal Index (DJUSCL) isn't having the best of weeks this week, but the big surge from two weeks gave the group a lot of wiggle room. Translation: Coal stocks are still in an uptrend, and still have a ton of upside potential now that the rebound effort is getting some real traction. The chart of the Dow Jones Coal Index below tells the tale... we logged a higher low in March [thanks to support at some key moving average lines], and then last week moved on to make our first higher high in years. This week's stumble doesn't negate any of that bigger-picture action. Well, something came up a couple of weeks ago that bolsters the bullish argument for coal stocks. First and foremost, this isn't an ironclad undertow yet, but it's likely to happen. What's that? China is very likely to raise its standards on the quality of coal it imports and burns. Specifically, the country is considering a ban on the imports of coal that have a high sulfur and ash content... the bulk of the pollutants made by burning coal. This is big news because China is the world's largest consumer and importer of coal, importing more than 300 million tons of the stuff in 2013. Of that 300 million tons, about 60 million tons would fall short of the new standard. Folks, that's a paradigm shift. This is good news for us - domestically - because the United States has the quality coal that's likely to be called for by the new (potential) mandate. Most of the 60 million tons of the high-sulfur, high-ash coal comes from Indonesia. With China unlikely to be able to whittle down its overall consumption, that leaves the United States to step in as one of the key suppliers of coal to China to offset the dirty coal it's been getting from Indonesia. Now, just so we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, the U.S. isn't the only place China can get this cleaner coal. Australia is sitting on a lot of the "good stuff" too, and it's already got very strong trade ties with China; that puts Peabody (BTU) in a prime position. Moreover, United States coal miners have about 200 million tons of untapped production capacity, so China's new standard still wouldn't bring our coal producers back to their glory days. Still, should this new mandate be put into effect - and we believe it will - this could be a huge boon for our struggling miners. It occurred to me that the early rumors about China's new coal rules could be what sparked the coal rally a month ago. I don't think that's the bulk of the reason for the rebound, however. I still believe rising natural gas prices are the key reason coal prices and coal demand are on the way up. And yes, I still see this cyclical trend lasting for a while... as in months, if not longer. We still don't have an official coal pick yet, but I intend to pick up the pieces of this week's pullback and finally scoop one up. I also don't mind letting you know Peabody is on that list. Great Point About Solar Power We haven't forgotten about solar power stocks either. We named solar power as our first investment-worthy megatrend of 2014 back on March 21st, believing the industry had gotten past its big hurdles once and for all around the end of last year. One of those hurdles - perhaps the biggest - was working the cost of solar panels down to something close to parity with "the grid". But, the advent of organized installers/financiers like SolarCity (SCTY) were helping to pull the industry up the hill as well. It all came together late last year though, making solar viable and self-sustaining. Sure enough, we started to see the fruits of years' worth of labor when Q1's earnings reports and outlooks began to roll in. In other words, solar is officially for real as an investment, safe and sound for people besides speculators. I said all of that to segue into a commentary Bryan Murphy penned today regarding SunPower (SPWR), First Solar (FSLR), and Canadian Solar (CSIQ). While I don't want to repeat something you can read for yourself, I will let you know Bryan perfectly underscored our initial point with his look at last quarter's earnings results from those three solar players - we now have plenty of convincing evidence that solar power is fully mainstreamed and investment-worthy. The only thing we didn't like about solar stocks back on March 21st was the price. Most all of them were technically overbought, and though "worth it" on a fundamental basis, being patient with our entry was likely to pay off. We still intend to pick one or two up, as a bunch of them have pulled back quite a bit since then. But, I don't see anything I'm completely in love with just yet. You know who has two solar stocks he liked well enough to step into them, though? John Monroe, over at the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity. He bought them a few weeks ago. Now, I can't tell you what those picks are, but I can tell you that you might be able to figure out at least one of them by scouring the website. The other one is a lot more obscure and you probably won't be able to deduce what it is. But, it's that "other one" that I like better. The company isn't really regarded as a solar panel maker because it didn't directly start out that way. It's waded pretty deep into solar power waters in the meantime though, developing a technology that could get panel-makers under the $1.50/watt price tag they need to be under if they want to be competitive. In fact, the SCN EO published an intensive - and exclusive - research report on both of these companies for its readers, explaining everything you'd want or need to know about both of these stocks as well the solar power industry's foreseeable growth. You can still get that report by accessing the archives and looking back at the April 2nd newsletter. But you're not an Elite Opportunity member? No problem. Even trial users have full access to the newsletter's archives. Just start your free two-week trial and scroll back to the April 2nd edition. The link to the special report is right there at the bottom. It would be time well spent, as this other surprising solar power play could be a real game-changer. Here's how to get it, or cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/ That's it for today, folks.