After last Friday's decline, just one day of moderate losses could cause the Dow and the S&P 500 indexes to slide back into the prior ranges.

Today is quarterly "quadruple witching" options expiration, the day on which contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options, and single stock futures (SSF) simultaneously expire. Because traders are focused on moving stocks to close near their preferred strike prices, quadruple witching days are typically erratic and choppy, especially in the late afternoon.

Several ETFs that track the main stock market indexes formed bearish "shooting star" candlestick patterns yesterday.

Overall market sentiment continues to improve, as does the technical picture.

All eyes will be on the latest announcement on federal economic policy, scheduled to be reported by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at 2:15 pm EDT.

For about the past eight months, the financial industry has generally shown relative weakness to the main stock market indexes. The laggard performance in financials has been one of the weakest points of the broad market's year-old rally.

The broad market continues to push higher while most traders anticipate a correction.

In the broad market, divergence among the major indices is becoming more clear.

Buying pullbacks in commodity-related ETFs is often more effective than buying breakouts.

Deron Wagner has been seeing a bit of sector rotation back into commodities lately, and the pattern in Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) may be setting up for a nice swing trade entry.