Trading While Trouble Abounds – The Market Breadth

trouble abounds (Credit: Sad Dog by Ink Hog, https://www.flickr.com/photos/34191996@N07/3859862007)

Stock Market Commentary “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.” This statement from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), concluded his commentary on the bank’s Q3 earnings report. These words on Friday morning fittingly concluded a sobering week that started with tragedy and war raging in Gaza and … Read more

Why Oversold Matters: The Jobs Dip and Rip – The Market Breadth

dip and rip (Credit: Google Workspace Labs, AI-generated)

Stock Market Commentary The economist “consensus” expectations for September job growth missed the mark by a mile, 336,000 actual versus 170,000 projected. These big misses represent the on-going struggles of conventional economics to understand the dynamics of today’s post-pandemic economy. Initially, the good jobs news frightened financial markets which think of good news as bad … Read more

Small Cap Stocks Uncork Oversold Conditions – The Market Breadth

uncork (Source; Google Workspace Labs, AI-generated)

Stock Market Commentary The last quarter of the year and the third of the stock market’s most dangerous months started off with a swirl of signals. Each of the three major indices exhibited its own behavior. Small cap stocks plunged and uncorked oversold trading conditions. The S&P 500 clung to flatline. The NASDAQ happily shot … Read more

Can An Oversold Bounce Prevent An October Swoon? – The Market Breadth

prevent October swoon (Credit: Google Workspace Labs - AI generated)

Stock Market Commentary The sentiment shifts following the bounce from oversold conditions swung from bullish and encouraging to tantalizing and disappointing. The stock market has a precarious setup going into a likely October swoon. The prospects for the current oversold bounce to prevent the October swoon hinge on a swirl of technical signs and fundamental … Read more

Oversold Trading Awaits – The Market Breadth

Oversold

Stock Market Commentary The Federal Reserve helped unlock the stalemate in pricing action that stalled the bearish divergence tugging the market toward oversold trading conditions. Fed Chair Jerome Powell once again told financial markets the Fed remains as hawkish as ever. Expectations contracted for rate cuts next year, interest rates soared, and stocks plunged. While … Read more

A Stalemate Locks In the Pricing Action – The Market Breadth

stalemate (Credit: stalemate by ALEXMOFFAT1 on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary Last week was a time to avoid staring too hard at the day-to-day pricing action. The major indices were pretty much locked into a stalemate. Two breakouts were followed by two breakdowns. From a wider perspective, a stalemate has effectively been in place since mid-August. Despite my expectations, last month’s Jackson hole … Read more

How A Bear Finds A Sector Full of Ugly Stocks – The Market Breadth

ugly stocks (Credit: "Jenn's Ugly Face" by lorenabuena is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/jp/?ref=openverse.)

Small caps were hit particularly hard in today’s follow-through to tech stocks pushing against technical limits. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) went from a breakout above its 50-day moving average (DMA) despite a surge in interest rates and oil prices to a sharp 50DMA breakdown along with a further spike in interest rates and … Read more

Tech Stocks Help Press the Limits of A Sentiment Shift – The Market Breadth

press the limits (Credit: Men Pushing Loaded Truck - Phulbagan - Kolkata 20180223161038 by Biswarup Ganguly on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary Jackson Hole did not provide the market moving spark that I expected. Instead, soft economic news delivered the decisive interpretation of future monetary policy required to provide a fresh catalyst for stocks. The bullish spark caught me flat-footed as I was leaning into imminent oversold trading conditions. Fortunately, the sentiment shift was … Read more

Bad News Is the Good News That Flips Bears to Bulls – The Market Breadth

bad news is good news (Credit: Yi Chen, The Skeptical Chihuahua, Taipei, on Flickr)

Introduction I recorded a quick video to summarize my thoughts on today’s flip from bearish to bullish sentiment thanks to a bad news is good news kind of day. You can watch the video or read the transcript below curated, corrected, and organized by ChatGPT4 and then edited further by me. I am using this … Read more

Stocks Stumbling With Looming Oversold Conditions – The Market Breadth

looming oversold (Credit: Looming Thunderstorm, by Corey Wagehoft on Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary Stocks stumbled their way through a week fraught with hopes and fears for Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole. With looming oversold conditions, the most significant technical event occurred with a bearish engulfing right under important resistance levels for both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. The relief buying that … Read more