By Lawrence G. McMillan
After a rousing start to the week, with $SPX breaking out to new post- 2008 highs, some selling has set in. To date, the selling has been modest and falls into the category of a "garden variety" correction. However, if support at 1385-1390 on $SPX fails, that would be bearish.
Equity-only put-call ratios remain neutral to slightly bullish. Breadth has been the "weak sister" of indicators for some time. The breadth indicators are currently on sell signals -- the sixth such.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (MarketWatch) — Despite the occasional overbought condition, the stock market – as measured by the Standard & Poors 500 Index — continues to plow higher. Considering that support levels keep building up below the market, and that overbought conditions rotate out without any major damage to the bullish market, it is clear that the bulls are still in charge.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market is taking a small breather today after yesterday’s strong bullish move. There doesn’t seem to be anything that would indicate this is more than a normal pause. There is now viable support in the 1385-1390 range for $SPX, which was last week’s low. Furthermore, the 20-day moving average is rising rapidly and is near that level as well.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market, as measured by $SPX, continued to advance in a narrow low-volatility manner. There is solid support at 1375-1380.
Equity-only put-call ratios continue to trade sideways, in a very back-and-forth manner. As long as they are in this state (and you can see the charts in Figure 2 and 3), we are considering this indicator as being "neutral."
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market decisively broke out to the upside on Tuesday, thereby confirming (in my opinion) that the volatile move we have been talking about would take place on the upside.
The equity-only put-call ratios are wavering around at more or less constant levels and aren't giving any clear signal right now. Market breadth hasn't been particularly great over the past three weeks, although it did revive enough this week to push the breadth indicators back onto buy signals.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
(Marketwatch) - Just a week ago, the market had its worst day of the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index finally touched and even closed below its 20-day moving average, for the first time in 52 trading days.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
A small market correction finally occurred this week, but it seems like it was nothing more than an opportunity for the bulls to buy at lower prices. $SPX once again established the 1340 level as support; in fact, it was a virtual trampoline as the index spurted higher after touching it on Tuesday.
Equity-only put-call ratios turned negative this week and remain on sell signals.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The levitation act is over. History shows us that the market is about to become more volatile. However, the market move can be in either direction.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The pressure that has been building is weighing more heavily on the market now. This will be the 10th day in the last 11 that “stocks only” breadth has been negative (unless there is a monster rally this afternoon). As a result, that breadth oscillators is approaching oversold territory. It’s been quite some time since anything has been oversold, as far as the major averages go.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Perhaps the first crack in the armor of this slow-motion bull market occurred this week, after Ben Bernanke spooked the market with his contention that there wouldn't be further easing.
The $SPX chart is still bullish. There is support at 1340-1350, and the 20-day moving average is at about 1350.
Equity-only put-call ratios remain on buy signals, but the weighted ratio is so low on its chart that it might be capable of rolling over to a sell signal without a lot of trouble.
