Well, that wasn't the direction I thought things would go today. I was really counting on the bears growling again, pushing stocks a little lower for a second day in a row and then letting the bulls test their intermediate-term ceilings. Now it looks like the sequence has been re-ordered. Now, it looks like the bulls needed to test their intermediate-term ceiling and then cool things off with a decent step back. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. We've been bigger-picture bulls since last Wednesday's capitulation, and we still think it's only a matter of time before the bounce breaks through some more serious hurdles. We're just surprised the bulls were willing to pounce on stocks so soon after a 6.4%, four-day rally. Oh well. From here we really do have some context for expecting a small pullback. Namely, the S&P 500 got just a hair away from its 100-day moving average line and then peeled back today, while the NASDAQ Composite bumped into a major line in the sand at 4479 - the 50-day moving average line - and also started to fade. Given that the S&P 500 was up as much as 7.6% from last Wednesday's low, the profit-takers had to be getting antsy, and today we hit a technical spot that would be the perfect place for the bears to stage a push-back. Take a look at the chart of the NASDAQ Composite to see what I mean. The composite index moved above the 100-day moving average line (gray) today and just brushed the 50-day moving average line (purple), and ended up closing under the former floor and former ceiling at 4467 (dashed). Considering both have been a ceiling in recent history, we have to assume either or both could still be willing and able to hold the market down now... at least for a while. It's also interesting how even though the NASDAQ broke to higher highs today, the composite's volatility index didn't break under its recently-developed floor at 18.1. It's a sign that traders are doing one thing but thinking another. As for the S&P 500, yes, it managed to punch through the minor ceiling at 1941 and race up to the 100-day moving average line (gray) at 1961.6, but no further. All it took was a touch, and then it started to fade. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe it isn't. I'm going to assume it isn't a coincidence, though. Another major red flag with today's bullish effort is incredibly weak volume. There just aren't any buyers at these prices in this situation right now, which means this rally is on borrowed time. Heck, I have to believe the rally is out of time (and gas) as of today. Don't read that the wrong way. It would actually take very little to rekindle the rally once it took a break, and it wouldn't even need to take much of a break to get rekindled. For the S&P 500, a trip back to the 1900-ish area could do the trick, and that's basically what I'm expecting - a lull back to the 1900 level, give or take. That slide would burn off a lot of overbought pressure that's developed this week, but wouldn't spook traders into restarting a major selloff. We'll just have to wait and see what happens there, but again, I'd be a buyer on any significant dip. Either way, the proverbial Mason-Dixon line is 1697, where the S&P 500 will grapple with its 50-day moving average line as well as with a floor/ceiling that was in play at the beginning of the month. Anything above that level and we're full-on bullish. Anything south of that line and we have to remain more than a little cautious. Yes, we're in something of a no-man's land right now. It could take a couple of days to find our way out of it, in whichever major direction we're destined to go. Earnings Scoreboard So Far We've got 28% of the S&P 500's constituents' Q3 earnings reports in, and so far, so good. The large cap index is on pace to earn $29.84 per share, which is just a tad less than the $29.93 analysts were looking for at the end of the calendar quarter. It's still leaps and bounds better than Q3-2013's income of $26.92 per share, however... about 11.0% better. As it stands right now, assuming the S&P 500 actually does post income of $29.89 for last quarter, the index is valued at a trailing P/E of 17.0 and a forward-looking P/E of 15.0. I'm still not crazy about the former, but I can digest a forward-looking P/E of 15.0. As of right now, after factoring in all the revised outlooks, the S&P 500 is supposed to grow its income by 13.4% over the next four quarters. I still have my doubts about the market being able to do that with buybacks slowing down, but I'll keep an open mind. For the record, 73% of the companies that have reported last quarter's earnings so far have topped estimates, while 18% have fallen short. About 8% have met estimates. That's a few more "beats" than usual, but we don't have a huge sample size just yet. Healthcare and industrial stocks have given us the best showing so far, in terms of topping estimates as well as in terms of income growth. Healthcare's earnings growth so far is 25%, and all six companies that have reported Q3's results have exceeded estimates. The industrial sector has only inflated its bottom line by 7% so far for the third quarter, but 94% of the 18 industrial stocks that have posted third quarter results have exceeded projections. The big disappointment so far has been consumer staples, which have collectively seen a 2% decline in net income on a year-over-year basis. Again though, it's still early on in earnings season, so we don't want to draw too many conclusions yet. We'll have an updated earnings picture for you when we get another batch of data. Time to Play the Oil Bounce? We hope you filled up your car's gas tank sometime before today. If you did, you got a great price on gasoline. If you didn't, then you're going to pay not-so-great prices for a gallon of gas again. Higher gas prices don't have to be all bad, though. Rising gas prices means rising oil prices, and rising oil prices means rising energy stocks. And, John Monroe found a potential monster-sized oil and gas winner for Elite Opportunity subscribers. I can't tell you what this stock is... not yet anyway. I want to make sure all the EO members get a fair first look, and I don't want to push my luck after telling you about iRobot (IRBT) yesterday. But, I'll you this is a stock I've owned before, and talked about before, and it's got a great story. I honestly don't see how the market ever let it get cut in half from its July peak, but I can tell you it should have never happened that way. It looks like investors are starting to figure it out, too. Once this thing gets the right nudge though (and I have a feeling it's coming), I can see the rally accelerating almost instantaneously. And, there's a lot of ground to make up. This is one of those stocks/opportunities where it would really be worth at least using your free two-week trial to the Elite Opportunity service to find out which company I'm talking about. There's no guarantee I'll ever get to tell you which company we're talking about here in a future edition of this newsletter. Here's how to get a free two-week trial . Or, cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1