The stock market drifted lower during the trading session, its attention focused on the first coronavirus cases reported in the USA. Breadth settled on a negative note: 1154 stocks closed higher compared to 2653 that settled down. Selling pressure intensified during the day as measured by our buying/selling index and after weeks of complacent trading, hedging activity reappeared in the option market. This pattern, if continued over the next few days, is going to improve rapidly our risk profile index.

Silver and precious metals are benefiting from this scary situation. The technical situation is favorable and an acceleration of prices towards the usd 20 area may well be under way as sytematic models have started to turn up.