Bulls have been totally dominant again, over the past week (and really since last November). The gap upside breakout over the minor downtrend line (blue line in Figure 1), on July 12th, was once again the beginning of a strong upward move. This was similar to the previous upside breakout gap over a downtrend line, in late April. The $SPX chart is thus strongly bullish and will remain that way until support at 2400 is broken.
First and foremost, the most bullish of our indicators is the $SPX chart itself (although some of our other indicators seem to be grudgingly improving as well). The 2400 area has been rock-solid support and until that is broken the $SPX chart will remain bullish.
Equity-only put-call ratios are technically on sell signals, according to the computer analysis programs. However, the weighted ratio (Figure 3) has curled over, so its sell signal is weakening.
This stock market has been able to avoid a meaningful correction for quite some time. But now $SPX has closed below support at 2420, and the failed upside breakout of mid-June is looking like a big negative item on its chart, as well. Of course, several times in the recent past, it seemed as if $SPX were about to succumb and it didn't. Can $SPX pull this escape act off once again? If it can hold support at 2400, it will.
A real battle has developed around the 2420-2440 area of $SPX. That has been the trading range for the entire month of June, but recently there have been some violent moves within the range, including some failed attempts to break out of it. As a result, this is setting up a more important breakout, once $SPX can find its way to clearly break out of the range.
It seems that no matter how strongly the market seems to sell off early in the day, it recovers almost all of those losses by the end of the day. As a result, the $SPX chart remains bullish. Subscribers know that we place a great deal of importance on the $SPX chart's trend, and as long as $SPX holds above support, the outlook for the overall market remains intermediate-term bullish.
A week ago, on Thursday, $SPX had broken out strongly to a new all-time high. It followed up with a modestly positive day the next day. On both days, "stocks only" cumulative breadth made new all-time highs as well, confirming the breakout.
We have repeatedly stated over the years that the S&P 500 index ($SPX) itself is the most important indicator, because even if all the other indicators are saying one thing, but $SPX is not confirming, then $SPX is right.
At the current time, $SPX is breaking out in a bullish manner, but the other indicators -- for the most part -- are not in agreement. Can $SPX carry the weight all by itself? Yes, because anything is possible, but that's not the ideal situation.
Stocks finally suffered a breakdown of sorts this week, after some extremely overbought conditions -- particularly in volatility -- had appeared. But the bulls are trying mightily to contain the damage, and they look they're doing it quickly.
At this point, $SPX remains within the trading range that was delineated by the March highs and lows (2322 - 2401). Very little damage has been done to the $SPX chart. It remains in a neutral state.
As you certainly recall, after "Frexit," $SPX broke out strongly to the upside gapping up on two consecutive days (something that is quite unusual for a large-cap index). However, since then it has virtually gone nowhere. As $SPX has hunkered down in this tight band, some technical deterioration has appeared.
Stocks (as measured by the $SPX Index) have had plenty of chances to collapse or to rally to new highs. Instead they have done neither, frustrating both bulls and bears.
In looking at the $SPX chart, two things stand out to me: 1) there is still a downtrend in place, from the all-time highs on March 1st, and 2) the support level at 2322 remains untested and thus is important.
