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Weekly Stock Market Commentary 2/10/2023

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Bear markets are tricky, and if what we are seeing now is the continuation of the bear market, it is exhibiting some of the actions that are designed to fool most of the people most of the time.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 2/3/2023

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The long-awaited breakout over what had become triple resistance at 4100 has occurred. $SPX closed above that level on February 1st and then added another strong day on top of that on February 2nd, thus confirming the breakout with a two-day close above 4100. That should lead to a challenge of the next resistance levels. First, there is the gap just above 4200 that created the island reversal back in August, which led to the downward leg into October at that time. Next up after that are the August highs at 4300.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 1/27/2023

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Stocks have moved back and forth through several supposed minor support and resistance levels this week. As a result, the picture has developed into that of a wider trading range, awaiting a breakout in one direction or the other. On the upside, there is double resistance at 4100, where the market topped out twice in early December. On the downside, there is support in the 3760-3800 area, where the market bottomed in late December.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 1/20/2023

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Stocks started the year off strongly, rallying with expanding breadth and favorable put-call ratio buy signals. However, in the end nothing changed as once again $SPX was unable to penetrate through the downtrend line that defines this bear market, as well as failing to rise up through its declining 200-day moving average. So, stocks have fallen back from there. The first support level at 3940 has been violated, and the next one at 3900 might be in jeopardy, too. That leaves 3760-3840 as the next support area. A failure there, and one can state with certainty that the bear market has resumed.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 1/13/2023

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The stock market has put on a good show of strength this week, after breaking out on the upside from the trading range that had held prices in check throughout the last half of December. $SPX is now challenging the downtrend line of this bear market as well as its declining 200-day Moving Average, both of which are near 4000. A clear breakout above 4100 would be very bullish.

Interest Rates and the Huge S&P Futures Premium

By Lawrence G. McMillan

An item that has been affected by higher interest rates is the premium on S&P (and other) Index futures. The premium on a stock index futures contract is related to dividends (higher dividend payouts decrease the premium on the futures) and interest rates (higher interest rates increase the premium on the futures). We received this question recently, and I realized once again that newer traders may not have seen this before:

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