The major indexes traded down to their 50-day moving averages Wednesday, fulfilling what nearly every technician had been anticipating.

We generally see a bounce, or at least an attempt, come into play at these key zones.

What’s important is that we discern which camp, Bull or Bear, comes out of it the strongest.

Wednesday’s volume matched the previous day’s heavy count, though wasn’t enough to certify a Distribution Day, which would have added fuel to the Bears’ cause.

Of interest is the Retail ($RLX) and Banking ($BKX) indexes, which have yet to trade down to their 50-day averages.

Given the heavy selling of late it would be surprising to see these indexes not follow the major indexes. Both sectors represent key drivers for market trends for their relationship to the economy.

But markets do as they wish. We’ll trade what is, not what should be.

Looking at individual stocks, we don’t see much in the way of quality Leadership stepping up to take us higher. The handful of top-growers listed in our Growth Stock Report for paid subscribers still holds potential, though it’s our Short positions that hold the path of least resistance.

Much of what was able to rally in the $S&P 100 for Wednesday came from stocks bouncing off lows or key levels, such as GILD, WAG and ALL.

Leading to the downside were energy names such as WMB, OXY and AXP – which are coming off 2010 highs made a week ago.