Rallies like the one that greeted the day yesterday didn’t routinely used to fail, at least not until recently. On Monday the Dow was up about 50 points in the first hour, extending Friday’s giddy waft, when sellers showed up and turned the morning’s gains into an eventual 80-point loss.  Yes, we’ve noticed the lack of buying interest lately. But the hallmark of this bull market has been its ability to move relentlessly higher regardless of whether there was strong buying interest.  Short-covering and an almost complete absence of dedicated sellers held the key.  Not any longer, evidently. The bull is struggling and perhaps dying. We still think the broad averages will hit new all-time highs before the curtain rings down. But if and when that happens, we’ll be eager to get short at every promising Hidden Pivot target.  Delusion and folly have had their run. Now it’s time for a bracing dose of reality.