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

The Churn Zones Survive Oversold Trading Conditions – The Market Breadth

Stock Market Commentary: When Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine, financial markets took heavy hits. Overnight, I anticipated a drop into oversold trading conditions for the U.S. stock market. Those oversold trading conditions were surprisingly and exceptionally brief. The major indices gapped down well below their lower Bollinger Bands (BB), and I waited … Read more

Brewing Oversold Conditions As Churn Zones Face Breakdowns – The Market Breadth

Stock Market Commentary: A divergence still exists between the anxiety in financial markets and market breadth, but that divergence is no longer so promising. Sellers rushed into the close as rumblings rolled of an escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. After Putin followed through with a nighttime strike against Ukraine, stock market futures sold off sharply. … Read more

Watch Currencies, Not Stocks, As Geo-Political Tensions Continue to Rise

The news headlines rang out today that Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin gave the orders to send “peacekeeping” troops into two breakaway regions of Ukraine. Stock market futures reacted instantly. Yahoo had a particularly dramatic headline declaring that futures “tanked.” Reflexively, I checked CNBC to review the preliminary damage: S&P futures down 1.8% and the NASDAQ … Read more

An Extended Overbought Rally Moves Into Historic Territory (Above the 40) – December 18, 2020

Stock Market Commentary The Federal Reserve signaled an incremental improvement in its economic outlook by making an allowance for limited stock repurchases and dividends by the country’s top financial institutions. As a result, bank stocks apparently soared in after hours trading. That fresh rally in financials should extend to a positive open on Monday and … Read more

Second Derivative Selling Produces A Stock Market Crash – Above the 40 (March 9, 2020)

AT40 = 4.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (9th oversold day)AT200 = 11.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 54.5Short-term Trading Call: bullish Stock Market Commentary The Shake and Bake bottom completely collapsed on Monday in the face of massive second derivative selling. The stock market … Read more

Market Crash 2020 Addendum

This post is a quick addendum to the Above the 40 post I published just ahead of a complete freefall in global financial markets. At the time of writing, futures are showing a 5% drop in the S&P 500 (SPY)! The crash is reflected in real-time in the currency markets. I actively watch the Australian … Read more

An Ugly Weekly Gain for An Extremely Oversold Stock Market – Above the 40 (March 6, 2020)

AT40 = 9.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (8th oversold day)AT200 = 23.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 41.9Short-term Trading Call: bullish Stock Market Commentary The Shake and Bake bottom barely held as support last week. It was a week of dramatic ups and downs … Read more

A Thematic Trump Trade Comes To An End

One by one Trump Trades have unwound and completely reversed all their gains (or losses) since the U.S. Presidential election last November. I find the end of this particular Trump Trade particularly thematic. On June 21, 2017, the VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (RSX) completed a full reversal of its gain since the election of Donald … Read more

Above the 40 (April 7, 2017) – An Incrementally More Dangerous Stock Market

AT40 = 46.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 62.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 12.9 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish (notable caveats explained below) Commentary The timetable for a May end to this period of extremely low volatility looks like … Read more