By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market continues to be resilient, if dull. The bears have not been able to force prices downward, despite what was a very overbought condition a week ago.
Equity-only put-call ratios remain bullish. Both the standard and weighted ratio have now made new lows for this recent move, and that confirms their buy signals.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market loves the fact that the Fed announced an other round of easing (QE III) but also hinted that such operations would continue into the foreseeable future (QE forever).
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Yesterday's market was one of the quietest days so far. $SPX had a total range of 5.34 points for the entire day. That is minuscule. In recent months, this sort of action has only been a precursor to further upside movement – and it wouldn't be surprising to see it happen again. Of course, there are still overbought conditions, but we would expect any correction to be short-lived and probably contained by support at $SPX 1430-1440.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market continues to march higher, listening to its own bullish rhythms and eschewing the potentially bad news that has kept many investors on the sidelines.
Today's rally has taken $SPX all the way up to the upper band of the bullish channel that has defined this market since early June. That in itself is an overbought condition of sorts. Today's highs also exceed the late 2008 highs, so the next target is the late 2007 highs, near 1500.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market continues to move higher, albeit at a very slow pace. The bears have been frustrated at mostly every turn, as one negative news item after another has been tossed aside in favor of the “risk-on” strategies dictated by the expected monetary easings from both Europe and the U.S.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Tuesday's action started out with a morning rally, and then spent the rest of the day giving a lot of it back. Overnight, though, S&P futures rose strongly, exceeding Tuesday's highs. They have given back some of those gains, but S&P futures are up 5 points in Globex trading tonight. There is now tentative support at 1430 – the lows of the last two days. Below there, the entire area between 1400-1420, where the market spend most of August, is support.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market, as measured by the Standard and Poors 500 Index ($SPX) has been meandering sideways for the past couple of weeks. This had the effect of alleviating the overbought conditions that had existed two weeks ago. Finally, today, the ennui ended, as $SPX blasted to the upside. It made new post-2008 highs, and it looks certain now to test 1440-1450.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained on buy signals throughout the last three months. However, they are now reaching extremely low levels on their charts.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The volatility of the stock market has dwindled to extremely low levels. The 20-day historical volatility of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is now 6% — the lowest levels since just after Christmas last year.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market has been in a dull, drifting mode all week. It is still easily within the bullish trend channel that began last August, and as long as that statement continues to be true, the bulls have the upper hand.
Equity-only put-call ratios are beginning to waver, but for the time being they remain on buy signals.
Market breadth oscillators turned bearish a week ago. They have remained on sell signals ever since.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (MarketWatch) — Despite the fact that the news media and fundamentalists can’t seem to find any reason to like this market, it refuses to sell off. In fact, as we head into the last holiday of summer, the market is poised near four-year highs.
