In focus: Cracks beginning to show

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The stock market has generally persisted in rising, albeit at a slower and slower pace, but it has taken on the appearance of a very tired entity. Therefore, we expect that the price correction of which we have been speaking for the last couple of weeks is at hand.

Perhaps it was precipitated by the parabolic move in Apple AAPL -0.94%   that ran out of steam today, or perhaps it is once again worried about the Greek debit crisis. In my book, the former is more worrisome to the market than the latter.

In any case, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index made a marginal new high for this post-October move today, at 1,355. That still leaves it below the 2011 highs, which are expected to provide resistance in the 1,360-1,370 area. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA made a marginal new high above its 2011 levels, but it is a negative divergence that SPX has not followed. Much of the reason for that, of course, is the massive amount of dividend-chasing that has been taking place in recent months (DJIA contains more high-paying dividend stocks than SPX does)...

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