We all made it through another mandatory holiday, and a tremendous amount has happened during our forced three-day idleness. There was the horrible tragedy in Texas, created by 1.8 trillion gallons of water dumped from the heavens in a matter of hours, and the OBBB victory lap, as well as the evidently recently discredited news that Elon had formed the America party. Let’s catch up with a few pre-opening charts.

The ES, NQ, and RTY are all showing red numbers, but as I mentioned yesterday, it’s only because data providers are pretending Friday trading didn’t exist. We are in fact higher than Friday’s close, but net of Friday’s trading, yes, we are down a little. Meh. BFD.

In my last post, I pointed out the notable achievement Starbucks had made by having the same price it did in December 2020, almost five years. Well, this next one beats that under-performance by offering a price that is the same as over five years ago: Lululemon (LULU), purveyor of overpriced garments for the vain.

During all of yesterday’s zaniness, i forgot to mention that I did my 42,000th post. Actually, since Slope lived for a few years elsewhere before winding up on this platform, there were thousands more than that, but still, let’s share a cupcake or something to celebrate.

As for the market, I’m ready for a cupcake since the /RTY rally faded. I woke up briefly last night and glanced at the market at the time where the arrow is placed, which kind of bummed me out for obvious reasons. As I’m typing this, the /RTY has actually slipped into the red. What it needs to do is cut below that green line, so – fingers crossed.