Well, no surprises today. Just like the three past times the market toyed with the idea of breaking past a recently-developed resistance level, stocks only needed to touch that ceiling this time around to kick-start a strong pullback. As of today, the S&P 500 is right back where it was in mid-February. Don't get too discouraged though, as the bears have been equally unable to get any sustained downside traction. I'm telling you though, something's got to give soon. SmallCap Network's Premium Advice - Elite Opportunity Actionable short and long-term NASDAQ and NYSE stocks poised for index average beating returns. Experienced daily in-depth analysis of major indices and their ETF's for short-term trading profits. Earnings options plays. Commodity trading precious metals & gold. Currency, bonds and much more! Get in the know now by getting on-the-ground trading and investing advice to make you more money. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. Click Here and Sign-Up Today! We'll look at the market's near-term direction in a moment. The first thing I want to do today is slice and dice Q1's earnings figures.... and I don't mean the S&P 500's overall earnings results. We'll get to them later this week. Today we'd like to do something we probably should have done a while back, which is dissect the earnings trends and budding momentum of mid caps. As it turns out, they're not clones of their large cap counterparts. Mid Cap Earnings & Hot Spots I'm not going to preach a whole lot here. Instead, I'm going to let the charts do most of the talking. I'll just preface it all by saying though we don't talk about it a whole lot, mid caps are probably better suited as long-term investments than most large caps are. In fact, mid caps have led the bull market that began way back in March of 2009, followed by small caps. Large caps have been the biggest laggards, though that's not unusual. What we've got for you is quarter-by-quarter, sector-by-sector earnings-growth details for the S&P 400's constituents. All the data before Q1-2015 is actual results, everything after Q1-2015 is a projection, and Q1-2015's numbers are half-projected, half-actual earnings growth. As could have been expected, the mid cap energy sector's earnings continue to be miserable. That's not apt to change anytime soon either. It's also not worth getting excited about the huge uptick in year-over-year earnings for mid-cap technology stocks either, as their Q1 bar was set pretty low by a very weak Q1-2014. But, I will say I'm impressed (yet not particularly surprised) mid cap discretionary names and mid cap industrial names have seen solid first quarter numbers. As for the future, you have to like the rebound potential of mid-cap consumer staples stocks, as well as technology stocks. Discretionary mid caps and industrial mid caps we also believe could remain healthy. I know healthcare looks good on a forward-looking basis, but biotech is driving most of that forward-looking growth that's based on the recent past. I'm not so sure it's sustainable. If you're just looking for a cut-and-dried explanation though, here it is: My favorite mid cap sectors going forward (in order of preference) are discretionary, staples, and then technology. If you want a mid cap to fill a gap in your portfolio, that's where we'd suggest you start the hunt. The follow-up question: While we feel mid cap discretionary, staples, and technology stocks are the best of the mid cap breed, do we think the mid cap breed is actually attractive enough to bother owning any of these names? The answer is, yep, but will have to save that discussion for another time. By the way, this is all just a precursor to the same detailed look we're going to take at small caps later on this week. We just wanted to go ahead and get your wheels spinning now, as the small cap snapshot looks considerably different than the one above. Deja Vu Just for the sake of honesty, the market has been this wishy-washy before. What's unusual about this wishy-washiness is how it's all unfurling within reach of a monster-sized resistance level. For the S&P 500, that's (still) 2119. Ugh. That being said, though the indices are still within easy reach of a break above 2119, the last few days - and especially today - have really underscored how unbullish things have been of late, even if they don't seem particularly troubling. Let's just start with a closer look at the S&P 500. It looks about like you'd expect even if you don't know today's numbers. That is, the bears followed through on yesterday's intraday pullback to dish out a 1.2% selloff today. What I really want you to look at though, is the recent volume. The best two days we've seen over the past week or so (Friday and Monday) were clearly made on tepid volume. The worst three days of the past five trading days (Wednesday, Thursday, and today) were made on higher than average volume. What does this tell us? It confirms something I've been saying for a while now.... there are more sellers than buyers at this time. It hasn't been a bearish problem yet, but it's a reality that could come back to bite us sooner or later. Here's the updated up/down volume chart and advancer/decliner chart for the NYSE's stocks, compared to the S&P 500. It's telling us the same thing. The only problem with the bearish thesis is, until the S&P 500 finally cracks a big floor currently at 2082, anything could still happen. Go back up to the daily chart of the S&P 500 to see it. It's the rising dashed line that tags all the key lows going back to February. It's been as strong as the ceiling at 2119 has been, and until that floor breaks, there's no reason to think this pullback is going to be able to do something the last several have been unable to do. The weekly chart of the S&P 500 also confirms the 2082 mark is a key line in the sand. That's where the index's floor for its long-term trading range is waiting to either rekindle the rally, or finally fail. It's also on the weekly chart you can get a better sense of how the VIX is testing the waters of an upside move, pushing off of the floor at 11.6. This is all stuff we've discussed before. But, this is the closest we've been to an inflection point yet. To that end, something has to give soon, mainly because there's just no room left to maneuver between support and resistance. We may get that break before the end of the week. And honestly, I'm kind of hoping it's a break to the downside. We need it, and I'd rather go ahead and take our lumps now. Summer is a tepid time for the market anyway, and even most bulls don't disagree that valuations have gotten a little excessive. A dip here would be a good buying opportunity, and a chance for the market to burn off some of its frothy valuation. If we delay it any further, it could just be a setup for an even more significant correction later... one that jump-starts an unnecessarily prolonged period of weakness. Let's see if tomorrow changes anything. Later this week we're going to look at the dollar's budding downside move and the semi-related rebound in oil prices. Though crude's flowing nicely, there's at least a near-term stumbling block dead ahead. We'll talk about both when we have time to do it right.