For today's Mid-Day Minute, Mike writes:  Well, if someone had told me late yesterday that after four hours of trading today, the E-mini June S&P would be 15 points under Tuesday's high, I would have said, "not likely!" But here we are are at 1179. On the enclosed hourly chart, notice that all of the action since mid-March amounts to multiple traverses of the range between 1194 and 1173 (roughly). Along the lower support line, we have a series of critical rising lows, which if breached, will argue that the counter-trend rally phase (that I thought required one more upleg to 1204-1212 to complete) is over, and a new very vicious downleg already is in progress, on the way to 1140. Until such a break of yesterday's low at 1173.00 occurs, my main scenario remains constructive. I looking for another loop to the upside that hurdles 1195.75 into the 1204+ target zone prior to the reassertion of the dominant downtrend.

MJP 04/13/05 2:05 PM ET (1179.50)

Mike Paulenoff is a 25-year veteran of the financial markets and author of MPTrader.com, a real-time diary of his E-mini S&P and QQQQ technical analysis and trading alerts. For more of Mike Paulenoff, sign up for a FREE 30-Day Trial to his E-Mini/Index Futures diary, or try his QQQ Trading Diary.