Stocks down this morning after yesterday’s session where gains sputtered later in the session. A confluence of factors I think are contributing to today’s weakness… 

Inflation is the chatter up and down Wall Street and is becoming more evident in recent weeks; but for the market, inflation started to come back into the picture as early as late 2019. 

This bull market cycle has long history of “down and dirty retreats.” Sometimes these declines can be explained and other times…not so much. 

The CBOE Volatility Index is retreating to the 21 level this morning, after tapping the 28 level just the other day. 

“Sell in May and go away” is playing out in 2021, but I don’t look for a big retreat here – maybe 3-5% using 32,000 as a downside for the Dow. 

It’s been some time since we’ve seen the Dow correct to any significant degree, and for that matter, the general market as well. I think a 3-5% pullback is definitely a possibility here. 

Whether you look at the market top down or bottom up, it is evident that the traditional cyclicals are continuing to gain ground here from a relative strength standpoint. 

Could get some follow through after yesterday’s latest record-high feat for the DJIA, up by more than 300 points despite selling pressure. 

If you’ve been on Wall Street for a number of years, you realize you just can’t fight the mood of the market. 

A few short years ago the very mention of agriculture would have drawn yawns as it was out of favor and wasn’t performing well, but has more recently is outperforming momentum categories.