Bolling: Basket of Trades to Close Out Week

This comes on the heels of a massive (and unexpected) inventory build this week. Gasoline demand dipped for the first time since most of us have been trading, and first-quarter productivity, although pleasantly positive, has paved the way for the Fed to stop easing soon (As in June).

So if I can't tag gasoline demand, crude oil supply, or the potential for a weaker dollar due to Fed rate cuts.....Dennis?

Wednesday was a challenging trading day. As mentioned above, the productivity figures for the first quarter were expected to show that non-farm business productivity rose 1.3% to 1.5%. We were given a bit of good news in that the number was much better than analysts (ha!) expectations. Productivity increase for the quarter was 2.2%.

The markets reacted as expected. The S&P went from a pre-open flat to a gain. But that's where the fun ended. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all steadily declined throughout the session. The markets closed at the lows of the session and my on-air optimism was replaced with my tail wedged firmly between my legs.

I follow the charts religiously and 1400 in the June S& P is very important. It has been building as a value area. I would like to see a close above 1410 soon. And a close above 1427 would green-light some serious buying -- both mine and The Street.

As it stands, the S&P is in a precarious spot. There is a trend line that extends from the March 17 low and the April 15 low and onward. That line is support now. It comes in at 1382 this week. I definitely want to see 1382 hold Friday. Or we may retrace back down to the first level of support at 1350.