April 29, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Dr. Joe Duarte) — The S&P 500 (SPX) is exhibiting very low volatility and congregating around its 20-day moving average. This is a classic chart formation, especially when you throw in the shrinking Bollinger Bands. And it means that the market is getting ready to move in a big way. The problem is that you can’t tell the direction.

So, let’s look at a few potential catalysts. The Fed is meeting and will have a statement sometime Wednesday afternoon. That could be a mover.

Senator Arlen Specter switched parties. That gives the Democrats a lot of wiggle room as they try to advance their political agenda.

The swine flu could spin out of control or fizzle.

The Taliban are advancing in Pakistan. Pakistan has a fully functional nuclear arsenal. You can fill in the blanks here.

Iran is still out there doing that stuff that Iran does.

Iraq is slowly returning to its violent ways.

In other words, the market is preparing for something to happen. And that’s why the S&P 500’s chart is preparing for some kind of a big move.

Support is somewhere near 800, while resistance is above 875. Moves above or below those key chart points are likely to travel at least another 5% beyond them.

The Investrend Earnings Calendar features Aetna (NYSE: AET), expected at $0.93 a year ago versus $0.92 a year ago; AFLAC (NYSE: AFL), expected at $1.16 versus $0.98 a year ago; Burger King (NYSE: BKC), expected at $0.34 versus $0.3 a year ago; First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR), expected at $1.51 versus $0.57 a year ago.

The Investrend Economics Calendar lists Gross Domestic Product for Q1 (8:30 a.m.), Treasury announces Refunding auction details (9 a.m.), EIA Petroleum Inventories (10:30 a.m.), Treasury auctions 7-year notes (1 p.m.), FOMC Meeting - Policy Announcement (2:15 p.m.).

The Investrend Events Calendar showcases EBAY Shareholders Meeting; GBE, LSE, SFI, FR at Incisive Media RealShare NET LEASE Conference; JNC, PSEC, MORN at Capital Link Closed-End Funds and Global ETFs Conference; MCD, FDO, WMT, NKE, BBY at Barclays Capital Retail and Restaurant Conference; MRO Shareholders Meeting; TSS Annual Shareholders Meeting.

The Investrend Money Index is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ 50 Most Actives indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing. Last session’s trading showed 19 advancers versus 29 decliners and two unchanged. Advancers were led by Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) up 24.71%, Host Hotels & Resort (NYSE: HST) up 7.08%. Decliners followed Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) down 45.20%, Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) down 14.16%, Gen Motors (NYSE: GM) down 11.27%, Delta Air Lines New (NYSE: DAL) down 9.93%, Bk Of America Cp (NYSE: BAC) down 8.63%, Huntington Bancshares Incorpora (NASDAQ: HBAN) down 6.40%.

Vote in the Investrend Poll Question of the Day at Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com).

Investrend Website of the Day: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

Quote of the Day: “Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means.” Henri Poincare

Today is: National Dance Day.

Happy Birthday: Henri Poincare, William Randolph Hearst, Duke Ellington, Tom Ewell, Celeste Holm, Toots Thielemans, Willie Nelson, Dale Earnhardt, Jerry Seinfeld, Kate Mulgrew, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Andre Agassi, Uma Thurman, Jay Cutler.

Today in History: James Cook arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia, in 1770. Ernst Werner von Siemens demonstrated the “Elektromote,” the forerunner of the trolleybus in Berlin in 1882. Gideon Sindback patented the zipper in 1913. The Dachau concentration camp was liberated by United States troops in 1945. Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in 1965 successfully launched the seventh rocket in their Rehber series. Roger Clemens set a major league baseball record in 1986 with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.

[FirstAlert^TM was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com). The opinions expressed in FirstAlert^TM do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]

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