Post-open Review… Treading water.

Late break higher holds up through the open.

The overnight narrowing sideways range centered around 2495.50. Breaking higher greeted the open at 2499.00, where a brief reaction down to 2497.25 was recovered into a 2499.00-2501.00 range.

For 45 minutes.

The 2498.00 bias-up signal has triggered. It would be invalidated back under 2498.00 through 10:30. Otherwise, its 2503.50 bias-up target would also fulfill yesterday’s 2503.00 “unfinished business above.” It is equally vulnerable to a knee-jerk reaction to headlines of any escalation in the N. Korea spat.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Yellen is scheduled to speak just before noon. Just before the morning’s bias environment finishes lapsing. Greeting the event from above 2503.50 would help to absorb any pessimistic knee-jerk reaction to her comments.

In either case, the pre-open rally started too late to avoid its complete retracement. And yesterday’s base already had closed too low for a rally effort to gain traction.