Stocks began the day weak—weaker than most traders probably realized. As you can see in the intra-day chart below, short-term momentum, as measured by Real Motion, had rolled on Monday. As a result, when the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) broke its 30-minute Opening Range low (as shown in the chart below), it accelerated lower.

The pattern to notice in the chart above is the divergence in Real Motion's two moving averages vs. the same moving averages in the price chart. The day began with the Real Motion averages negatively stacked (the 50 in blue, under the 200 in green). This is weak momentum, even when the price moving averages aren't negative (yet). When this divergence occurs, Opening Range breakdowns tend to follow through, as happened today.

Today was particularly bearish, as there were good reasons for stocks to be under pressure. Regional banks broke down to new year-to-date lows, and the United States oil fund (USO) had its biggest down day since July 2022. This dragged down energy stocks and stoked fears of economic slowdown. Adding to the uncertainty is the Fed's interest rate decision, scheduled for Wednesday.

Flight to safety and worsening fears of economic slowdown were confirmed by the big rally in the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). Tomorrow, gold may be the biggest mover. Gold is often referred to as the asset that rises and falls with inflation, but gold's favorite time to shine is in periods when markets lack confidence in the monetary system.

Today, the market's mood with respect to the regional banking system went from bad to worse, as exemplified by the action in the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF). The Fed will likely raise rates again, which is expected. However, if Chairman Powell's remarks create a further loss of confidence in the Fed's ability to navigate the worsening banking crisis, economy, and inflation risks, the weekly chart of SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) below looks ready to shine.

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Mish in the Media

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We all know at this point how difficult the market has been with all of the varying opinions regarding recession, inflation, stagflation, the market's going to come back, the market's going to collapse - ad nauseam. What about the people stuck in the middle of a range bound market? Mish presents her top choices for shorts and longs on the Friday, April 21 edition of StockCharts TV's Your Daily Five.

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Mish walks you through technical analysis of TSLA and market conditions and presents an action plan on CMC Markets.

Mish presents two stocks to look at in this appearance on Business First AM -- one bullish, one bearish.

Mish joins David Keller on the Thursday, May 13 edition of StockCharts TV's The Final Bar, where she shares her charts of high yield bonds, semiconductors, gold, and regional banks.