Good day! Wednesday was a rocky session for the market following the election results coming out of Tuesday's vote. The market gapped down initially, but this larger than average gap took the indices right into strong support zones. These included the 5 minute 200 simple moving averages in all three indices and then the price congestion from Monday. The 15 minute 200 sma in the S&P 500 was also tested early on. All of these factors stalled the decline and held up the market going into the session.

The indices spent the morning working towards a closure of the gap. The Nasdaq Composite was the first to accomplish this feat shortly after 10:00 ET. The resistance served to push that index into a trading channel that would last into the afternoon. The Dow, and particularly the S&P 500, had to work a bit harder. The S&P 500 had the most ground to make up and it did so by basing along the 5 minute 20 sma on light volume and then breaking higher out of 10:30 ET. The Dow followed the same path, but closed its gap more quickly. By 11:00 ET all three indices were at similar resistance and had their 15 minute 20 simple moving averages overhead along with the gap closure. This created a wall that held the market back over noon.

As the afternoon trading rolled around, the market was holding the 15 and 30 minute 20 simple moving average resistance, but suddenly came under the influence of a mid-day news break. The announcement was made that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had tendered his resignation. The immediate reaction was a rapid surge to the upper end of the intraday trading range. There was some quick whiplash, but, as the market digested the news, the buyers came to the forefront and took over again. They built up enough momentum to take the indices back into the prior day's highs, but they never broke the pattern of choppiness and as soon as those highs hit they again faltered for the final 90 minutes of the day.

The market closed on Wednesday with a 19.77 point gain in the Dow Jones Ind. Average ($DJI). The S&P 500 rose 2.88 points in the session. The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) had the largest percentage gain (+0.4%), adding another 9.06 points on the week to date. Oil stocks faired very well on Wednesday, as did the gaming sector. Some of the top name on the NYSE included ADM, DO, STN and XOM. Many stem-cell companies also received a boost as Democrats gained representation, hoping that they would favor such research. Alternative-energy stocks also posted gains coming out of the election results with similar sentiments regarding Democratic favor.

While the overall bias in terms of the momentum moves remain bullish at the moment, I am expecting the bulls to continue to have a more difficult time like we saw yesterday. It would not take a lot to turn the market over again on the daily charts, but for the most part the swingtrade setups I'm coming across are still primarily buy setups. Most of them at this point are just continuations of breakouts from the last couple of days. IGT is one of them I am watching for a continuation breakout using intraday setups.

Economic Reports and Events
Nov. 9: Export Prices ex-ag. and Import Prices ex-oil for Oct. (8:30 am), Initial Claims 11/04 (8:30 am), Trade Balance for Sep. (8:30 am), Wholesale Inventories for Sep. (10:00 am)
Nov. 10: -
Nov. 13: Treasury Budget for Oct. (2:00 pm)
Nov. 14: Core PPI, PPI, Retail Sales, and Retail Sales ex-auto for Oct. (8:30 am), Business Inventories for Sep. (10:00 am), FOMC Minutes Oct. 25 (2:00 pm)
Nov. 15: NY Empire State Index for Nov. (8:30 am), Crude Inventories 11/10 (10:30 am)

Key Earnings Announcements
Nov. 9:  BIVN, CNTY, FLO, GIGM, HANS, IMAX, MRGE, TXU, URBN, JOBS, COGO, ECLG, DIET, EXPE, KSS, SNDA, and DIS
Nov. 10: SIL, ERF, HEW, IAG, PBR, CXW
Note: All economic numbers and earnings reports are in lines with those compiled by Yahoo Finance. Occasionally changes will occur that are made after the posting of this column.

Toni Hansen is President and Co-founder of the Bastiat Group, Inc., and runs the popular Trading From Main Street. She can be reached at Toni@tradingfrommainstreet.com.