And that brings a close to another week and another month. All in all, investors are off to a good start in 2015, with the S&P 500 up about 2.4% year-to-date thanks to an unusually strong February. And yet, there's still room for stocks to move ahead before hitting a strong headwind. We'll look at the near-term likelihood for the market below, as we usually do. Before we get to the main event, however, we've got a couple of other items to cross off our checklist for today. The first one is a quick look at some of the economic data posted in just the past couple of days. And when I say quick, I mean quick... we'll let the charts do the vast majority of the talking this time around. Economic Data Snapshot I don't know that any of you should be "doing" anything with or about a specific economic data. Sometimes, just knowing what the bigger trends are and getting a good feel for the bigger picture - by getting a grasp on all the smaller pieces - is valuable enough in itself. With that being said, here's the final updated real estate chart we've been looking at all week long. We added the FHFA Housing Price Index update today; which moved higher by 0.8% in December (from November's levels). Here's the updated chart of our two key consumer sentiment measures. Today's final reading of the Michigan Sentiment Index for February was 95.4, down versus January's final reading of 98.1. Still, as you can see, both the Conference Board's poll and the Michigan Sentiment Index are in longer-term uptrends. Last but not least, the second (of three) fourth quarter estimate of GDP growth rolled in at 2.2%, down from the first guess of 2.6% growth. While there's still a chance it could be revised upward again, more often than not there's little change between the second and third calculation. Next week is an important week in terms of economic data too. We'll get February's unemployment numbers on Friday, which are almost always-market moving. More on Sears Thanks for all the positive (and maybe not so positive) feedback regarding our take on the slow demise of Sears Holdings (SHLD) we shared in yesterday's newsletter. One of the notes we got from you guys merits a response here, just so everyone knows the whole story. Michael writes: "I think everyone is missing part of it with Sears. Sears intends to spin off part as a REIT. Then become a publicly traded mall operator essentially by leasing to other brands in the retail industry." Thanks for the message Michael. It was a detail we almost made a point of explaining on Thursday, but decided things were getting long-winded enough as they were. Throwing in another idea wasn't going to help make the point any better. In any case, Michael is right - Sears is mulling becoming a landlord to other retailers, at least to some extent. This is precisely what Eddie Lampert said on his shareholder letter: "We anticipate that the REIT will continue and accelerate many of the activities that we have been pursuing over the past several years. Specifically, we have been working to partner with other retailers and mall owners to enable us to reduce the operating footprint of our stores to smaller but still significant spaces, while leasing part of the store to retailers who will bring increased foot traffic and relevance to our locations. A completion of a REIT transaction has the potential to significantly transform our capital structure toward one that is more flexible, long-term oriented and less dependent on inventory and receivables. We would hope to maintain a long-term presence in each location while allowing Sears Holdings to still have the flexibility to make strategic business decisions should those locations prove unprofitable for Sears Holdings in the future. We believe that many locations can be repurposed with or without Sears Holdings as an anchor, which would give the REIT the potential for value creation as well as downside protection if Sears Holdings were unable to continue to operate certain stores profitably." What's not made clear is to what additional extent Sears aims to become a landlord to other retailers and to what extent Sears intends to remain a landlord to Sears stores. But, given that the company made a point of making it clear that the REIT would be a sale-leaseback deal when the idea was first floated back in November, I just got the impression that leaseback plan was still the core mission for most locales. Based on Lampert's explanation above, I still don't get the impression Sears is looking to become a pure mall landlord with its REIT. But hey - that's just my take, and you don't need me to tell you Sears can make decisions, change their minds, and implement changes with little to no warning. I wouldn't be shocked if within the year the company closed all its stores and decided to convert all of its real estate to a "mall within a mall" concept. SCN Elite Opportunity Free Alerts Get premium select stock picks via email and mobile text alerts from our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity Team. It's 100% FREE! No strings attached and no credit card required. Click here to sign-up today! This REIT discussion cues up two other ideas I really wasn't planning on mentioning. But, since we've already opened the can of worms.... 1. While the idea of a REIT seems like a brilliant use of the company's real estate, bear in mind retail rent revenue on a square footage basis isn't nearly as strong as the revenue opportunity fostered by selling retail goods within that square footage. On average, consumer retailers generate about $400 worth of revenue per square foot every year. On the other hand, the average annual rent per square foot of retail space at a mall is around $40 per year. Don't let that number frighten you though. Sears is losing money as a retailer, but might actually make some - though not a lot - as a landlord. The size/scale of a REIT operation is going to look much smaller than a retail operation, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if there's a profit in it. 2. While the raising of funds through a REIT will indeed inject some much-needed cash into the bank account, for those of you who already own shares of SHLD (and want to own a piece of the REIT based on your proportion of the company's total float), here's something to think about - Eddie Lampert is looking to sell you what you already own. The company owns the real estate, and shareholders own the company. Pay for it if you like, but it should be a spinoff, not a fund-raiser. Oh well. Now, about this market.... Not a Big Deal Yet We'll keep this short, as I know a lot of you want to get your weekend started. Besides, despite Friday's noticeable weakness, it 's not like we have a lot to add to our ongoing discussion. Our chart of the S&P 500 tells most of the story that needs to be told at this time. The S&P 500 gained about 6% in February, and deserves something of a break. It could continue to fall for a couple more sessions and still not get into any real trouble. And when I say trouble, I mean none of this dip is going to be worrisome until the S&P 500 breaks under its 20-day moving average line, currently at 2082... and even then I'm not so sure it would be too far gone to salvage. One of the bigger but subtle reasons I'm not sweating this lull yet is simply because we've yet to see any substantial volume behind any of the recent selling. I do, however, want to take a closer look at the NASDAQ Composite today, as there was a modest red flag on this chart I don't want to react to yet, but I do want to keep tabs on. It's not so much the NASDAQ (which looks like the S&P 500 in most regards) on my mind. It's the NASDAQ's volatility index, the VXN. Unlike its S&P 500 counterpart, the VIX, the VXN is starting to edge a little higher. This is a subtle cue that traders are truly starting to think defensively, which means they could start acting and trading defensively in the near future. It's not a reason to stress yet. It's just something to watch, as it may give us a warning before anything on the S&P 500's chart does. Other than that, I can't really find any other weak points. We'll have to assume the 20-day moving average lines are going to act as support if-and-when tested. If they don't act as support, we can talk more about it then. None of it matters at this point, though, now that the weekend has begun. You know what matters right now? Signing up for your free stock picks given to you courtesy of the Elite Opportunity team. They issued a good one earlier this week, and it's already off to a great start. Take a look at its chart. I can't tell you which stock this is, but I'm sure most of you will recognize this is a very attractive technical setup. It just keeps on knocking down walls and making higher highs, yet there's room to keep rallying. Don't miss out on the next big winner! Sign up for these free stock alerts today by going here, or cutting and pasting this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/pages/SCNEOL/v1/