Equities currently are in what I call “digestion mode.” After the big May sell-off, stocks have made a valiant comeback in June. That comeback now seems to have stalled, and one big reason is that there’s been a bevy of news suggesting trouble on the economic horizon.

Recent home sales data failed mightily to meet expectations, as did the recently anemic retail sales and jobs numbers. Then, we have the continuing uncertainty over the fate of Europe and its debt woes, and the very real possibility that a global economic slowdown could pull us back into recession.

As you can see by the chart here of the S&P 500, stocks now have failed to remain above their long-term, 200-day moving average (red line). This failure to move decisively above this key technical level is not a good sign for the bulls.

From a trading perspective, I think you should be prepared to take either long or short positions, as things literally could go either way when we’re bouncing around the 200-day average.

If, however, you’re a long-term investor, I think supreme caution is mandatory. We still haven’t seen the kind of job growth necessary to pull us fully out of the recession and, as we approach 2011, taxpayers face the prospect of expiring income tax breaks and increased dividend taxes.

Now, I am not saying that the long-term investor can’t make money in this environment. You definitely can, but only if you play your cards right. My Successful Investing advisory service has been helping investors play their cards right for more than three decades, and given the virtual inflection point we’re currently at, having a little help with those cards is a pretty good idea.

To find out more about the service, and to find out how we’ve been protecting investors’ money for more than three decades with the proven -- market-beating -- Fabian Plan, then I invite you to check out Successful Investing today.