'From Russia with(out) Love' - came a Valentine's Day greeting, as a very closeted but not unknown 'National Security threat' that was revealed by House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner, a day before Nate Sullivan was scheduled to brief the 'gang of 8' anyway on this topic (he was surprised Turner slipped it).

What it is remains cloaked in secrecy but might relate to a new permanently orbiting 'device' capable of hitting our security satellites 'or' offensive capacity of its own. Hard to speculate, but clearly this story completely overshadowed the market's rebound, at least in the late morning.

Then S&P regrouped to rally more, with a Close nailed 5000 (hourly support became resistance and we'll surmount that on Thursday 'if' there's no shock before the opening related to revelations about the Russian response to what it perceives as NATO provoking it (not really the case, but some think so).

My comments last night suggested we'd regroup and rebound rather than an extension of downside, primarily because there's so much money around that is eager to 'get in' and missed our low for S&P of last October. They'd looked for an excuse to put money to work, and yesterday's drop gave them that. At the same time by no means to I see this as straight up without irregularity.

Market X-ray: 

We got the behavior with moderate strengthening overall, and look for more presuming no early shock from the Russian 'revelation', for example if The White House decides to declassify the information 'before' the market opens on Thursday. If not S&P will still hesitate when/if detail 'leaks' appear if anything more than what we already presumed Russia was doing in space (it is widely presumed they likely already have EMP devices in-orbit for years).

I can't imagine politicians using this as a card related to Election politics (well I can imagine, but would prefer to believe this is something already known in Intelligence/military leadership for years, just not shared with the public...yet.)

P.S. after the Close markets are rife with comments that Nvidia (NVDA) has taken a stake in.... our.... SoundHound. SOUN is up over a buck on the Pacific and the Warrants have doubled this evening. We'll see if this leads to a takeover or not, remember others have originally invested in SOUN from the get-go. It is 'possible' that Blackrock, Vanguard and Softbank all increased stakes in SoundHound since the Stellantis deal, which itself could be significant.

Of course I hope there's real action, shares should paint the tape Thursday. We need do nothing but hold and see whether it's just a run-up, a double for the stock, or more significant if there's a takeover brewing. 'Perhaps' on any.

Bottom-line: 

No change in assessment, but again they’ll try to press this a bit higher tomorrow. I think next week's PCE may be a key anticipation, so might be firmer (prices in general are), but if PCE is tamer year-over-year, that will matter. I do not dismiss a high level trading range persisting for awhile now.

Go SOUN, Go LUNR, Go ODAS... well we've been rather patient. Perhaps all and perhaps none, sort of the broadening-out we've wanted to finally see. P.S. can we also do a 'Go BBAI'?

More By This Author:

Market Briefing For Wednesday, February 14
Market Briefing For Monday, February 12
Market Briefing For Thursday, February 8