The market basically has slowed down during the past week. Though there’s been some small degree of volatility in stocks since last Wednesday’s Alert, it certainly appears as though the markets are hitting the pause button before next week’s crucial midterm election.

As you can see by the chart here of the S&P 500 Index, stocks basically have stalled out during the past week. Part of that is no doubt due to the wait-and-see posture traders have adopted in front of the election, but part of that is the natural pause in the upward trajectory of stocks that tends to follow big runs higher.

Stocks have come up huge since falling to their August lows. In fact, the S&P 500 has surged some 12% since its August nadir, and that means stocks are way overdue for a bit of a slowdown.

If we see some kind of unexpected elections results -- either a blowout win for Republicans or a better-than-expected showing from Democrats that keeps them in control of both the House and the Senate -- then expect to see some serious price movement in disparate directions next week.

Until then, however, I think we’ll see more wait-and-see trading for the rest of the week and into the early part of next week.