Weekly Stock Market Commentary 4/8/16

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Stocks are struggling to maintain the stupendous rally that began on February 11th. While there has been a slowing of momentum, the $SPX chart remains in an uptrend for now.

The equity-only put-call ratios are both on buy signals, although there was a flirtation with a sell signal from the standard ratio (Figure 2) during this past week.

Market breadth has weakened recently, and both breadth oscillators are on sell signals as of Thursday's close. A strong up day in the broad market could cancel out those sell signals quite easily, though.

Volatility indices, meanwhile have remained at fairly low levels, and that's bullish for stocks. As long as $VIX remains in this trading range, stocks can continue to rise.

In summary, there has been some weakening in the indicators, but most of the sell signals have been indecisive and quickly canceled out. These are warning signs, but not yet a sell signal.

This Market Commentary is an abbreviated version of the commentary featured in The Option Strategist Newsletter.