Weekly Stock Market Commentary 3/21/14

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The market action in the last 10 days has been a complete whipsaw. Now, the chart of the Standard & Poors 500 Index ($SPX) shows the index to be in a trading range -- bounded by resistance at 1880+ (the all-time highs) and support at 1840 (last Friday's lows).

Equity-only put-call ratios remain on sell signals, even though the market has bounced back this week.

Market breadth has been volatile, just like the market. Breadth sell signals were canceled briefly when the market rallied early this week, but have now been reinstated.

Volatility indices ($VIX, $VXO, and $VXST) spiked sharply higher last week. But when they spiked back down, they generated buy signals, which are now in effect.

In summary, the indicators are mixed now, but the $VIX buy signal should be significant. We may not really know which way the market is going to move until it breaks out of the $SPX 1840-1880 range, though.

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