Russell Trying to Join Party
Over the past few months I have often warned about the caution signs being given by the major stock market indices not all being in sync together. With 32 months passing since the last 10%+ correction, the bearish camp is hoping that age alone will befall this market. History suggests otherwise. Historically, major index non confirmation or divergence is typically a sign of a market about to correct or in the most extreme cases, the end of a bull market. […]
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Date: June 12, 2014
Draghi Delivers… Bears Lie in Wait
In one of the better telegraphed moves out of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi & Company gave the market what it had been expecting, using some fairly heavy ammunition to provide stimulus to Europe’s struggling economy. He may not have gone to Hank Paulson’s bazooka just yet, but they are getting close! Thursday was a solid win for the bulls as the Dow, S&P 500, S&P 400 and Nasdaq 100 all scored new highs for 2014 with the lagging […]
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Date: June 6, 2014
Bears Get Another Opportunity
On the Bullish Side It has been a relentless 10 day assault by the bulls with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 scoring new highs while the S&P 400 and Russell 2000 are fighting to lead. Europe remains near new highs and emerging markets have had a very strong run, much to my delight! The New York Stock Exchange Advance/Decline line continues to see all time highs which has very positive intermediate-term implications for stocks as it is an […]
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Date: June 4, 2014
All Time Highs on Tap
Despite significant warnings from the S&P 400 mid caps, Russell 2000 small caps, Nasdaq 100 and a host of sectors, the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 are poised to see all time highs this week. The headlines will look nice and investors may cheer, but serious damage remains beneath the surface over the intermediate-term. Yes, we remain long various indices and sectors, but we will likely lighten up or hedge on a quick spurt higher. If we do see […]
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Date: May 12, 2014
Rally, Decline… Outcomes Abound
The stock market begins the post holiday week in neutral territory after the mid week bottom last week that I discussed on Yahoo Finance. The day before Good Friday is usually up less than 0.50% and that ended up coming true. The Monday after Good Friday, which is also the first day after April option expiration has a bit of a headwind to it so a strong advance by the bulls would be an especially positive sign. In all likelihood, […]
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Date: April 21, 2014
Stocks Remain in Pullback Mode
With the major indices down 4-8% I am once again getting questions whether the bull market has ended and a multi-year decline is unfolding. I don’t think so.The New York Stock Exchange Cumulative Advance/Decline line recently scored an all time high. When bull markets end, we typically see this indicator peak months, quarters or even years before the Dow and S&P 500. The same can be said of the high yield bond sector. Bear markets are usually associated with restrictive […]
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Date: April 14, 2014
U-G-L-Y Day on Thursday
The stock market had a very rough day on Thursday with all of the major indices breaking down below all short-term support levels for the chartists out there. There is no other way to characterize than UGLY. Keep in mind, however, that so far, all we have seen are 3-6% declines. It feels much worse because we saw two large down days over the past week, the likes of which we haven’t seen all year, including the January pullback. On […]
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Date: April 11, 2014
Routine & Healthy Consolidation in Play
Last Friday, we saw the S&P 500 tick at all time highs for a few seconds. That’s anything but unexpected and certainly not newsworthy. What was “different this time” was that it was the only major index to score new highs before they all reversed sharply to the downside. That made calling for an overall market pullback fairly easy. Over the past few days, the high flying, momentum driven tech stocks, like Google Netflix and Amazon have come under strong […]
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Date: March 26, 2014
Ben Bernanke Cringing
New Fed chair, Janet Yellen, presided over her first FOMC meeting this week with her first press conference yesterday afternoon. In short, as much as I supported her for the position, it’s crystal clear that she is no Ben Bernanke and has much to learn. On the positive side, she was very calm and took time to give thoughtful and detailed answers. I especially liked when she stated that the glide path to tighter monetary policy was going to be […]
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Date: March 20, 2014
Bears Growl as Line in the Sand Breached
As I look back at the titles of the posts this week, I see “Stocks Looking to Rest”, “Bulls Hanging in During Tug O’ War” and “Bears Creeping In”. It was hard not to at least lean to bearish side. Until Thursday although prices were lower, the bulls fought hard. But on Thursday, the flood gates opened with some major league selling in the indices. On the sector front, all were sharply lower with the exception of utilities and precious […]
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Date: March 13, 2014
