An indecisive start to the session gave way to buying on a wave of negative economic data with Leading Indicators and housing Starts early morning.

The latest Conference Board Leading Indicator report indicates we already may be in recession as the index has dropped for eight consecutive months.

Existing Home Sales downtrend continues, now down for the ninth consecutive month to an annualized rate of 4.43 million or -5.9%; the Street was looking for -6.6%.

Defensives are the big winners this afternoon. Defensive nature points to plunging oil and recession implications.

Breadth is negative and light this afternoon, notable however is there are more new highs than lows on the NYSE.

The market is showing some resilience and trying to break away from the last two days of selling.