As far as market recoveries go, that wasn't a great one. Yeah, a gain is a gain, but we gave up half of the intraday gain we mustered on Thursday, and volume was just mediocre. I'd say investors are still a little shell-shocked from Wednesday's news that the Fed is planning to dish out one more rate hike in 2017 than anybody was counting on. Here's the question we all need to be asking - what if we need three more rate hikes? I know the headlines may suggest the economy isn't equipped to deal with any real degree of higher consumer or business costs. Namely, we learned today that consumer inflation was only up 0.2% in November, and on Wednesday we found out retail spending was only up 0.1% last month, and only up 0.2% when taking automobiles out of the equation. But, you guys and gals know how we feel about headlines and the economic numbers they bat around. For some reason, the media just looks at most data from the wrong perspective. To right that wrong, today we're going to take a look at last month's retail spending data and inflation data, using a much more relevant year-over-year comparison. From this perspective we can get a much better sense of what's going on. And guess what.... things are a lot better than the knee-jerk interpretations seem. Let's just start with the CPI (consumer price index) data to paint a clearer picture of inflation. Despite the tepid month to month number, on a year-over-year basis we continue to see higher prices... as consumers, and as businesses. Overall consumer inflation moved to a new multi-year high of 1.7%, and even stripping out the benefit of cheap food and gasoline, the pullback there still leaves core consumer inflation at an annualized pace of 2.1%. Producer inflation continues to rise too, on a core as well as a non-core basis. Folks, this is something the Fed has to nip in the bud. We'll also tell you there's a reason inflation is even capable of edging higher as it has, and that's because of broad economic strength. Better to deal with it now on terms we can handle than try to scramble to deal with it later on terms we don't like. As far as November's retail sales go, compared to November-2015's consumer spending, we've got nothing to worry about. The average year-over-year increase for all the major stratifications is about 3.6%. Moreover, if you look closely at our growth pace chart below, it's starting to look like spending is perking up again. We only show you these charts because we know you're not getting the whole story from most other sources. Market-wise, we weren't kidding when we told you the market's inability to hang on to its gains was a little alarming. Take a look. The buyers backed off when push came to shove today, and yesterday's opening price for the S&P 500 was being threatened. That's an interesting, nuanced clue, as is the fact that the VIX now appears to be finding support at its 20-day moving average line. I can't yet guess to what extent it matters, but it's interesting (to me anyway) that we're seeing a huge confluence of support starting to converge at 2171. Put that in your back pocket for just one second. With things essentially on hold for a moment while the market finds its bearings, I thought it was the Elite Opportunity Pro's John Monroe who (as usual) had the best common-sense trading framework that we could all realistically apply on a conditional basis. He said of the S&P 500: "Provided below in a daily chart of the S&P 500, and as you can see, we've included some key retracement levels based on its highs and lows over the last few months. Assuming the index continues to digest the Fed's recent rhetoric, and more importantly continues to rotate the short-term Trump bulls out of the markets over the next several days, we could see a move to roughly 2,160 before the markets could be in a position to bottom. However, it's also possible the index finds itself below its 3X3 DMA (blue line) for about three or four days, and then resumes its upward trend once again. Conversely, if for some reason the S&P 500 can completely negate yesterday's selloff by end of day today or tomorrow, it's still puts the 2,288 level question. In other words, we'd need a clear break of 2,288 to the upside if these markets are going to continue thrusting higher in the near-term. Remember, based on what we've seen for months, these markets are capable of just about anything." He's seeing a possible move to the 2160 area (which is actually right around not one but two key Fibonacci retracement lines, at 2168 and 2158)? I pegged it at 2171, which is just a bit north of there? You know, when two people start seeing the same basic floors for two completely different reasons, maybe there's something to it. And for what it's worth, John's advice is always well worth heeding. Just yesterday the Elite Opportunity Pro newsletter closed out a 20% gain on the Direxion Daily Real Estate Bull 3X ETF (DRN), and booked a 59% profit on the Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X ETF (LABU). Oh, and he didn't own either of them for longer than two months. Talk about efficient! Thing is, that's not an usual result for John's short-term portfolio in the EO Pro service. He's booked a bunch of huge double-digit winners for Elite Opportunity Pro members this year. His index analysis like the one you read above is just a little trading gravy for Elite Opportunity subscribers. If you're not a member, you're missing out.