Mid-day Update… You don’t see that every quarter.

Choppy ranging ahead of three high-profile earnings.

Perhaps the session has been contained, but not necessarily paralyzed. The morning’s post-open attack on 2564.00 reacted down to 2557.25. Its recovery up to 2565.00 was retraced to fulfill the consequences of its no-bias trending above 2561.50 and 2558.50. All before the noon hour.

The noon hour contained a knee-jerk reaction to a negative headline about tax reform talks. But only a knee-jerk reaction, as price action remains contained within a narrowing range.

Perhaps it’s just anxiousness ahead of post-close earnings due from AMZN, GOOGL, and MSFT. That’s normal, but usually not until the afternoon. It seems to be the inverse today, with a lot of energy being expended to contain trending attempts, instead of no energy being expended to even try trending.

The ranging may yet persist into the close, as it normally does the afternoon ahead of these three earnings (let alone all three on the same day). Another break higher would still be credible for extending. But the only “unfinished business” outstanding is below from this morning at 2550.50, keeping alive the attraction back into yesterday’s range, and the potential for probing under yesterday’s low.