Stocks rose today without strong investor participation. Market breadth was better than Monday's session. However, the fire power from institutional investors was lacking in Tuesday's session. This might have been due to Passover as many market participants were off for the holiday.

Stocks rose today with the major indexes finishing with gains ranging between 0.2% and 0.5%. Investor participation was strong. However, today was an options expiration session. Volume typically picks up during these sessions. Market breadth was decent in today's session as well. Following the trend we are raising the support/resistance levels on the S&P 500 (SPY) (see below).

The major indexes spent most of the session today down but as the day went on stocks edged their way to basically a flat close. The DJIA (DIA) was up 0.1%, the S&P 500 (SPY) was flat, and the Nasdaq Composite (QQQQ) was down 0.1%. Even though stocks were able to erase the losses investor participation was somewhat mixed and market breadth was neutral.

Investors began earnings season bidding stock prices lower as the major indexes declined between 0.8% and 1.0% after Alcoa (symbol: AA) beat their EPS forecast but missed the sales forecast. There was probably more to the reason for the declines than just Alcoa.