Stocks Wake Up With Key Breakouts – The Market Breadth

wake up with breakouts (Credit: My cat's waking up by jestersgrin on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: What was quiet in the prior week is now loud and clear. Led by the NASDAQ, the stock market is in breakout mode. While market breadth is not quite endorsing the move, key breakouts are showing up in the indices and individual stocks. The inability of sellers to take advantage of bad … Read more

The Latest Lap On the Generative AI Trade

AI race (Credit: Fuyoh! on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: The trade on Generative AI took a surprising turn last week as investors and traders rushed to related names as if they offered safety from the banking Panic of 2023. Some stocks shot straight up for the week. The renewed interest surprised me because I just happened to write about this trade … Read more

Bears Convert Picture-Perfect Resistance Into Major Breakdowns – The Market Breadth

major breakdown (Credit: ms4jah on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: Unlike the prior week, last week was all about the fundamentals, and the fundamentals made a huge difference. After failing to break through picture-perfect resistance levels, especially the 20-day moving averages (DMAs) (the dotted lines in the charts below), the indices were left vulnerable to selling pressure. The pressure started with Federal … Read more

Stocks Rush Back to Overbought Despite Powell’s Fresh Inflation-Fighting Warnings – The Market Breadth

rush back (Credit: Oskar running in the snow II by Tambako the Jaguar from Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: Social unrest from fresh COVID lockdowns in China are already a distant memory for the U.S. stock market. Just as quickly as the stock market bearishly failed once again to hold overbought trading conditions, market breadth flipped the script to surge and rush back to overbought. Buyers and bulls celebrated a speech … Read more

Post-Fed Confusion: To Rally or Not to Rally – The Market Breadth

confusion (credit: Confused Yet? by Random Retail on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: The latest jobs report came on the heels of another post-Fed downer. The U.S. added 261,000 jobs but the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.6% to 3.7%. At the open, the market seemed to celebrate the potential implications for looser monetary policy despite the microscopic change in the unemployment rate. China delivered … Read more

A Stock Market Running Low On Fuel Ahead of A Fed With Few Reserves – The Market Breadth

Stock Market Commentary: The fresh sag in the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ makes the stock market look like it is running low on fuel. The damage is timely just ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve. In these circumstances, I would expect the Fed to deliver soothing words to the stock market … Read more

Stock Chart Reviews: Snapshots from the New Normal

Stock Market Commentary A new COVID-19 variant created a new normal for financial markets. The following stock charts provide snapshots of how the market reacted to this new reality. Pandemic-sensitive stocks reacted sharply with a holiday-shortened trading session creating extra urgency for traders. Some of these quick trigger moves should reverse at least a bit … Read more

Small Caps Drove A Bullish Expansion of Market Breadth

Stock Market Commentary The market took just one more day to resume the momentum of expanding market breadth. An extreme October set up this bullish start to November with fresh all-time highs for major indices. While small caps as a group just missed an all-time high, the surge in small caps drove a bullish expansion … Read more

An October Extreme Sets Up A Bullish Start to the Market’s Strong Season – The Market Breadth

Stock Market Commentary The S&P 500 (SPY) bounced back from September’s woes for a 6.9% gain for the month of October. While the gain is extreme, I am even more interested in a different October extreme. Somehow, the index managed to skate through October without a notable drawdown. The maximum drawdown in October for the … Read more

Warnings from Early Divergences in the Oversold Bounce – Above the 40 (July 23, 2021)

Stock Market Commentary The oversold bounce last week exceeded my expectations. I did not expect the week to end with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hitting fresh all-time highs. Both indices seemed to offer limited upside for trading oversold conditions.The oversold bounce also disappointed me. I looked to beaten up stocks as the source … Read more