"And there goes the pivot argument the bulls were using to ramp...

"And there goes the pivot argument the bulls were using to ramp markets? Wasn't that the whole reason for the bear market rally? So what will happen now if the reason for the rally is gone?"

Well, there are two numbers that US the market wants for a rally to happen. One is peak inflation, which is already behind us. The other is peak interest rates, which all depends on what the fed says and does.

On a technical perspective, the DJIA, shown below, will hit the August rally support line next week and bounce. The bounce will be a dead cat (due to interest rate fears) and will create a downtrend that is likely to go all the way to the 2020 covid crash support line. This major support line is likely to produce a bigger bounce - which could feed into an election rally, santa rally and Jan reporting season rally especially if the fed is backing off on interest rate hikes by then.