S&P 500 was slowly and steadily crawling higher through 4,260 till 4,280, but even in the run up to GOOG and MSFT earnings, made it to 4,290 only. The key event was Blinken‘s statement on Iran, fitting well with the path of escalation I described in Sunday‘s extensive article. ES declined to 4,245, but had trouble breaking below, and today‘s premarket is bringing price action with 4,260 acting as the first resistance.As regards yesterday‘s data:(…) Add today‘s manufacturing and services PMIs coupled with Richmond manufacturing index, and odds are these wouldn‘t be breaking down badly, meaning these would support the Fed‘s higher for longer – policy that markets are still getting accustomed to post FOMC.They didn‘t trigger more higher for longer (rate raising in 2023 is probably over) fears, but instead lent credibility to the recession avoided chorus, which would be however proven wrong in the 3-6 months ahead.. Sectors and Stocks 
META would probably present itself as one of the stronger top stocks, but I doubt it would take out $330 very soon. This is rather a sideways chart with a bullish bias. Gold, Silver and Miners 
Gold and silver consolidation is slowly drawing to its end, and both metals are likely to keep crawling higher over the neart term – the chart is really bullish for the patient investor. Crude Oil 
Crude oil keeps consolidating, and is showing short-term weakness that it would though start recovering from in the days ahead. $83.50 is proving to be a good support, but the road to $86 is still long (not a matter of today or tomorrow).Copper made an encouraging rebound off $3.55, showing real assets aren‘t spooked by the upcoming Powell speech. Sticky inflation coupled with strong data yesterday (US recession still far off as per PMIs) bode well for base metals as well.More By This Author:Miserable Breadth Must Equal SPY DeclineSPX Bears RuleWar Drums And Risk-Off
