As I pointed out yesterday, Health Care (XLV) made a monumental move on Tuesday after the CEO of Pfizer (PFE) cut a deal with the White House. The momentum carries hope that the rest of the industry will follow suit and cut similar deals.

Biotech is receiving the most attention, and Biogen (BIIB), a pioneer in the industry, led the charge.

The S&P 500 (SPX) closed at a new high, with the recent trading channel remaining intact.

Styles and extended factors were predominantly in the green, although it's somewhat ironic that momentum and low volatility both finished lower.

Market Breadth

Breadth was solid, but not overwhelmingly bullish. We are seeing pockets of profit-taking in several NASDAQ names.

Market Breadth	NYSE	NASDAQ
Advancers	1,622	2,687
Decliners	1,149	1,996
New Highs	160	302
New Lows	39	97
Up Volume	3.42 billion	5.96 billion
Down Volume	2.36 billion	4.08 billion

Manufacturing contracted again, but at a slower rate of change. There were positives, including an employment uptick and slowing prices paid.

However, prices paid have decreased considerably since the June reading of 69.4.

Bond Yield

The most significant move of the session was the move lower in the ten-year treasury yield (TNX). If it falls under 4.0%, many bears will change their tune.

That said, a move to 3.5% will be considered doom by the doomsday crowd.

Traders are betting heavily that the ten-year yield moves below 4.0%.

Today’s Session

Retail investor bullishness edged higher in the most recent week, but bearishness remains well ahead of the historic average.

• Stock and stock fund allocations increased by 1.0 percentage points to 68.3%.
• Bond and bond fund allocations increased 0.1 percentage points to 16.3%.
• Cash allocations decreased 1.1 percentage points to 15.4%.

No government data, but Challenger and Gray came out with September data that sees hiring plans continue to plunge.

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