Good Morning, Traders. After some news from Fed chairman Benjamin Bernanke at around 10 a.m. ET that insinuated that rate hikes may pause for a moment soon, the market ripped higher closing all three major averages in the green and on a sharp increase in overall volume, indicating institutional accumulation which is decidedly bullish. The only problem with all of this is that moves after the Fed speaks in one way or another are often knee-jerk in nature and often don't hold. The Dow made new 2006 and multi-year highs again intraday but didn't manage to close up there, while the S&P and Nasdaq didn't come anywhere near those levels. Although overall volume was up an average of 20% on both exchanges, market internals were actually quite weak. Breadth (advancing volume minus declining volume) was rather lackluster, closing 1.64 to 1 positive on the Nasdaq and exactly flat (parity) on the NYSE. Advancers minus decliners on the NYSE equalled a whopping +36 on the NYSE and were actually negative by 262 on the Nasdaq. Not very inspiring when you look under the hood now, is it?

Peter Reznicek is the Chief Equity Strategist and a principal of the Prana Fund, a domestic hedge fund, and ShadowTrader, a subsidiary of thinkorswim which provides coaching and education to its clients on both intraday and swing trading of equities. For a free trial to the full version of The Big Picture or to learn about ShadowTrader's other services, visit shadowtrader.net or send an email to preznicek@shadowtrader.net.