Stocks were volatile Wednesday, after the FOMC announcements. But, in the end, prices ended up about unchanged. Overnight, though, that changed substantially as a strong rally has unfolded, with S&P futures up 14 points on Globex. Not much has changed with respect to the individual indicators. Both equity-only put-call ratios remain on buy signals. $VIX is still below 15, so that is bullish.
For the second time this year, the feature article discusses the overbought state of the stock market. There are quite a few overbought conditions, and all are enumerated in this article. However, overbought does not mean “sell,” unless some actual sell signals are received – which, so far, have been lacking.
$SPX remains in a strong uptrend. However, it has reached overbought levels, in that it is "too far" above its 200-day moving average. The first support level is 1670, and if that is violated, traders should turn cautious.
The equity-only put-call ratios remain on buy signals, despite "wiggles" at the end of some charts.
Now that the Standard & Poors 500 Index ($SPX) has made new intraday and closing highs, joining the other major indices (except NASDAQ), there is once again no overhead resistance. However, increasingly overbought conditions may combine to slow the rally at least temporarily. $SPX has support just above 1670 (last week's lows), then again at 1650 (the June highs), and then at 1625 or so, where it traded for a time early this month.
The "interpreters" are in charge of this market. They are the people who interpret what they think Bernanke said, and then they act accordingly in the stock market. Frankly, I am in the camp that Bernanke has not changed his message at all -- he has consistently said that QE will remain in force until economic conditions improve (and there is no improvement -- at least in the indicators he is watching).
There are always critics sniping at $VIX, but they are usually fringe players – often with an axe to grind, such as promoting their own version of volatility calculation or something like that. But recently, the criticism has grown much larger and is coming from the center of the investment landscape.
We have two great educational webinars coming up next week -- one by McMillan Analysis Corp. founder and president Larry McMillan, and the other by Director of Corporate Services and head mentoring instructor Stan Freifeld.
Ever since the broad market bounced just over a week ago from the 1560 level, the bulls have been trying to gain complete control. So far, they have been stymied. $SPX has not broken out over resistance, nor has $VIX broken its uptrend. However, one other important indicator has turned bullish -- the put-call ratio.
$SPX has topped out in the 1620-1630 range for several days. A close above 1630 would be positive.
The speed with which $SPX fell -- 63 points in two days -- meant that it sliced right through support areas without stopping. There is support at 1560 -- this week's low on $SPX. Furthermore, there is important support below there, at 1540, from a series of lows back in March and April.
Equity-only put-call ratios have not given confirmed buy signals yet. They remain on sell signals.
With the stock market collapsing recently, option implied volatility spiked higher in a large number of markets. Of course, actual (historical) volatility has increased as well, but it is implied volatility that reflects more of the panic mood of the public, and thus is the one that can be used as a contrary indicator.
