Stocks closed mixed yesterday following a dull session in which investors focused on the small country ofSlovakia.Slovakiawas the last of 17 countries in the euro zone to vote yesterday on an expansion of the zone’s rescue fund. The world waited but the final decision, a rejection, came after stock markets in the west were closed.

The obsessive focus on Europe and its impact on theU.S.markets may be warranted due to the global nature of business. But it could also be the result of the public’s withdrawal from stocks, which results in an overall condition much like war — days of boredom punctuated by hours of sheer terror.

Just 882 million shares traded on the NYSE yesterday and 441 million on the Nasdaq. And on both the Big Board and Nasdaq, advancers exceeded decliners by about 1.5-to-1.

Nevertheless the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) still hangs over the market threatening to again turn calm into chaos. The index closed yesterday at the lower end of its two-month range but still above 30 — a number which is generally thought to be the beginning of high volatility that favors the bears.

It is sometimes helpful to view long-term charts with a cluster of moving averages. These charts give perspective to the current market because the formations are so similar. Note the failures of prices to break through these clusters in this weekly chart going back to 1996 and how quickly prices fell afterward. (Please excuse the quality of the chart and thanks to Ciovacco Capital Management for the long-term idea.)

One of the lines in the long-term chart was a 300-day moving average. If past is prologue, then the resistance from 1,220 to 1,230 is a very important area of overhead congestion. A break above that line would probably lead to a test of the neckline at 1,260 and the change of the overall trend from down to sideways. But a failure could lead to another leg down.

Experienced traders like my colleague Joe Burns are able to lock in profits no matter what the market is doing. In fact, he just captured profits of 43%, 50% and 57% in only one day. You can check out his system here.

Today’s Trading Landscape

To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here.

For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here.