In my last update, I opined that the Fed should not raise rates and that whatever they did, the market would end whatever move it was having and reverse in the other direction. First, I am glad that Yellen & Co. did not raise rates. That time will come, but it wasn’t last week. Second, stocks rallied nicely into the Fed meeting and in the moments after the announcement. However, it was the perfect “buy the rumor, sell the news” as stocks reversed sharply shortly thereafter and closed near the lows for the day. I totally dismiss that the market was disappointed by the Fed’s lack of raising rates. That’s preposterous. Stocks rallied into the announcement in the classic ” buy the rumor” trend. Friday was an ugly day for the bulls and after the typical post-weekend, feeble bounce on Monday, the bears are out in full force today.
None of this action should come as a surprise as I wrote about post-crash behavior many times here and in Street$marts. From its intra-day low on August 24 to last week’s peak, the Dow jumped roughly 1500 points, retracing about 50% of what it lost since its last all-time high in May. Stocks are now in the throes of the secondary decline to revisit the levels seen in late August. I expect that visit to be successful within a few percent and eventually lead to all-time highs again.
The stock market doesn’t look pretty now and I don’t expect that to change until after the bottom is reached over the next two to four weeks. There will be all kinds of reasons not to buy when it’s time. “The market has lost confidence in the Fed.” “China is having a hard landing.” “Global economic growth is recessionary.” And on and on and on.
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