By Lawrence G. McMillan
Today's early market action was a continued grind higher as further shorts were forced out of their positions. $SPX made the intraday high just below 1390, the upper end of resistance from 1380-1390. Around 1:00pm EST the Fed Chairman finished up a speech that apparently the market didn't enjoy. This triggered a wave of selling that brought the market down. Despite the sharp midday selloff, we still believe this rally may have some more room to the upside, likely a test of firm resistance in the area of 1400 and slightly above.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market has continued to decline rather sharply this week. As a result, the support at 1370 was broken -- yet another major support level giving way. The next major support level is likely to be 1330, which is the lows of last July (see Figure 1).
The equity-only put-call ratios are moving to the higher levels of their charts now (Figures 2 and 3), and in a sense, that is oversold. However, they are clearly still on sell signals since they are trending higher.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The bears have finally managed to take control of the stock market, mostly due to some worries about upcoming economic and regulatory issues. However, the market has quickly gotten oversold, so a bounce may be forthcoming in the near future.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market, as measured by the Standard and Poors 500 Index ($SPX) continues to break down through important support levels. It is the close below 1395 that matters. This should activate targets as low as 1330, although it probably won't be in a straight line, for $SPX worked back and forth between 1330 and 1370 in July, and that range should provide some support.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Stocks are trying to make sense of the election results, the newly bad news out of Europe, and the potentially foreboding “fiscal cliff.” This resulted in some very volatile action in the market Wednesday — especially if one also includes the overnight session in the S&P futures last night.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (MarketWatch) — Ever since the stock market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX broke down through support late last month (on Oct. 23), the bulls have been struggling to regain control.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Ever since the stock market, as measured by the Standard & Poors 500 Index ($SPX) broke down through support late last month (on October 23rd), the bulls have been struggling to regain control. They have not done so -- yet. However, yesterday's rally has brought $SPX right back up to the 1430 level, and we are still in the October bullish seasonal period for one more day.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market — as measured by the Standard & Poors 500 Index SPX +1.04% — is struggling to stabilize after last week’s breakdown below support. The onset of the massive storm Sandy on the east coast of the U.S. has not helped matters.
While the end of the month of October is usually a bullish seasonal period, trading on two of those three days was lost to the storm. Moreover, the third day — today — saw subdued activity as not all market participants were able to, or even wanted to, get to work.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
For a considerable period of time, $SPX refused to break down. From the June lows to the October highs, the trend was steadily upward as $SPX traded in a bullish channel. However, that channel was broken on Tuesday of this week, when $SPX broke through it and also broke through support at 1425-1430. This has changed the $SPX chart from bullish to, at best, neutral. Those who want final confirmation would also require a breakdown below the August lows at 1395. That would confirm an intermediate-term bearish outlook for stocks.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
A major support level has finally given way. With $SPX falling below 1430, a lot of selling was unleashed into the market. Rally attempts were made, but without much success. As a result, the technical picture has changed, although it could still be considered neutral rather than bearish, at least to some impartial observers. However, with the penetration of the 1430 level, not only was support broken, but so was the bullish trend line that extended back to the June lows.
