Three Scenarios to Year-End
On the surface, you would think that the past nine days were nine easy days for the bulls. After all, the Dow was up more than 5%. What could be bad? Beneath the surface, there was much wrong with the post-election rally that began the day before the election. To begin with, the Dow was a leading index, followed by the Russell 2000. The S&P 500 and S&P 400 were nothing special. The NASDAQ 100 was actually down over the […]
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Date: November 18, 2016
Bulls Want to Fight
After a clear loss to the bears last week, the bulls closed Friday well off the worst levels of the day and closer to the highs. That price behavior usually leads to some follow through buying the next day. Looking at the five major stock market indices, they look very different, which is not normal. The Dow and the Russell 2000 oddly look the most similar with the S&P 500 and S&P 400 together. The NASDAQ 100 has the most […]
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Date: August 10, 2015
Short-Term Tea Leaves Say Bulls About to Step Up
The stock market remains on the defensive as I have written about for some time, not that this is a repeat of 2008 or even 2011. It’s not even your garden variety 10%+ correction. Stocks remain in the range they have been in for most of 2015. From a bullish perspective, it’s a good intermediate-term sign that after the huge run up we have seen, the bears can’t even muster a 10% correction. From the bearish perspective, stocks have stalled […]
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Date: June 16, 2015
Two Market Scenarios for the Quarter
In the last issue of Street$marts, I wrote about stocks being in a “murky” period for the next few weeks. I am going to pat myself on the back and say it has certainly looked “murky” since early October although I wish I had been more aggressive in taking action. The dark clouds have recently dissipated and the sun is starting to pop out. Once the decline began, it looked like the second half of October would see a low and that’s […]
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Date: October 21, 2014
BOOM! Now High Yield is Key
What a great day in the city on Wednesday! I knew I was okay when Metro North actually ran on time to start the day. I did two segments with the good folks at Yahoo Finance, one discussing the most overused word in investing, “bubble”, and the other on the current state of the bull market. As they are posted I will share the links. I headed to the floor of the NYSE in the afternoon for a quick stint […]
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Date: October 9, 2014
Bears Stepped It Up
For most of September, I discussed the very negative seasonal period that ended on September 30. Remember, poor seasonals with strongly negative short-term trends from the Fed and options expiration usually just provide a headwind or accelerant to a market move already in place. The second half of September was certainly a poor showing for the bulls, which is part of the reason October began so weak. For those who watch the charts, the Dow and S&P 500 visited their […]
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Date: October 2, 2014
Watching the Bounce
Thursday’s shellacking in the stock market was a bit unusual given how close in time stocks were to all time highs. As I mentioned in Street$marts, my screen was a complete sea of red except for the instruments that go up when stocks go down. As I have over said over and over and over, based on history, the bull market remains alive. In the short-term, it looks like the best case for the bulls would be a few days […]
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Date: August 1, 2014
Something for the Bears to Hang their Hats on
The Dow hit yet another all time high today and there hasn’t been a 10%+ correction in 35 months. When stocks opened sharply lower on July 10th, the bears came roaring out of hibernation calling for everything from a 10% correction to the end of the bull market. It was a sea of ugly red prices on my screen due to Portuguese bank worries, and weak China data. That decline didn’t even last a full day. Nor did the decline […]
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Date: July 16, 2014
Bears Creeping In
In yesterday’s update, I drew two short-term lines in the sand, looking for the major indices to close below Monday’s low or above last week’s high to signify the next move. Yesterday, we saw the Dow and S&P 500 stay above Monday’s low, but the S&P 400 and Russell 2000 closed below Monday’s low. That leaves us leaning in the bearish direction awaiting full confirmation. Leadership from biotech, REITs and utilities has started to wane, but the financials are trying […]
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Date: March 12, 2014
Canaries Still Singing
With many all time highs seen in October, it is a good time to review the canaries in the coal mine for signs of trouble. Remember, canaries are only valuable at major market peaks and bottoms. For the vast majority of the time in between, they will be of little value. We review all of the major stock market indices and sectors along with other key indicators of overall market health. At major market turning points, we will often see […]
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Date: November 1, 2013
