Market Breadth Firms to Start the Year – The Market Breadth

AT50 (MMFI) set a new low for 2024 before firming to start the year.

Stock Market Commentary The new year of 2025 got off to a rocky start with the weight of the last Federal Reserve decision on monetary policy pushing fresh losses across the indices. I assumed this price action signaled the market’s readiness to cash in on the capital gains that it did not want to register … Read more

How Home Builder Stocks Trade In A Seasonal Pattern (2025 Update)

seasonal pattern home builders (Credit: Housing Market by free pictures of money on Flickr)

Introduction The U.S. housing market follows a seasonal pattern. The spring selling season typically represents the year’s peak of activity in the housing market. During this time, households try to settle into a new home before summer travel or well ahead of the Fall start to the next school year. Like retailers who eagerly anticipate … Read more

Early Santa Rally Fails to Fade Fed Fallout – The Market Breadth

Early Santa Rally Fails to Fade Fed Fallout – The Market Breadth (Credit: Matti Mattila on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65448940@N00/3054240654)

Stock Market Commentary Investopedia defines the Santa Rally very precisely: “A Santa Claus rally refers to the sustained increases found in the stock market during the last five trading days of December through the first two trading days of January.” Based on this definition, Santa is failing…and just as the stock market risks a January … Read more

After the Plunge, A Quick Rebound Tests New Resistance – The Market Breadth

After the Plunge, A Quick Rebound Tests New Resistance – The Market Breadth (Source: juicesandmilks on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/66006481@N00/3137875524)

Stock Market Commentary The dust is settling ever so slightly on the stock market’s post-Fed plunge. The stock market shifted from euphoria to oversold on a day that woke up everyone to a potentially new market reality. I say “potentially” because all year the market has been hit with bearish catalysts and quickly bounced back … Read more

From Euphoria to Oversold In A Day? – The Market Breadth

AT50 (MMFI) plunged to its 5th lowest close of the year on a test of the intraday low from August. Will AT50 finally achieve official oversold conditions this year?

Stock Market Commentary If you followed December’s deterioration in market breadth and/or paid attention to the inflation numbers and the smoke signals from the Federal Reserve, today’s market sell-off does not surprise you. What surprises me at the time of writing is the complete collapse in market breadth. The stock market essentially plunged from euphoria … Read more

A Market Breadth Breakdown Belies Tech Strength – The Market Breadth

A Market Breadth Breakdown Belies Tech Strength – The Market Breadth (Source: Kecko on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/70981241@N00/16394025055)

Stock Market Commentary Inflation was the big story last week. I covered the details in “Bonds Try to Weigh on A Market Trying Harder to Look Past Stabilizing Inflation“. The stock market had a curiously mixed reaction that highlighted an on-going bearish divergence for the month of December. A market breadth breakdown contradicted impressive strength … Read more

Turnaround December Defies Sagging Market Breadth – The Market Breadth

Turnaround December Defies Sagging Market Breadth - The Market Breadth (Credit: Bill Selak, https://www.flickr.com/photos/98274023@N00/2643943441)

Stock Market Commentary It probably seems odd using “turnaround” as a descriptor for December’s trading. After all, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ continued their respective melt-up trading action. Yet, small caps diverged and trickled downward all week. So I am intrigued by a collection of stocks that are making and often completing turnarounds from … Read more

A Lazy Holiday Week Sets Up December Buys – The Market Breadth

The S&P 500 (SPY) began to stagnate but still hit new all-time highs.

Stock Market Commentary Holiday trading last week was deceptively lazy. The indices did a lot of churning, yet the S&P 500 and the ETF of small caps each made all-time highs at some point. A good number of individual stocks developed and followed through on bullish setups. For example, all week long, new highs greatly … Read more

Support Holds Firm Ahead of Holiday Week – The Market Breadth

Support Holds Firm Ahead of Holiday Week – The Market Breadth (Credit: David Kingham, https://www.flickr.com/photos/31583394@N04/8406338206)

Stock Market Commentary Imagine that. Key support holds firm across the major indices. A telling post-election reversal turned into proof positive that unrelenting bulls remain all-in for the stock market. Not even a further escalation in World War 3 brought pause to the rebounds off support (Russia fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine and … Read more

Post-Election Reversal Tests Support After Confirming Bearish Signal – The Market Breadth

The S&P 500 (SPY) roundtripped to its post-election open, converging with the October high and 20DMA support.

Stock Market Commentary The stock market has a natural law of “physics.” Overly enthusiastic trading, whether up or down, eventually meets an opposite and sometimes equal force. This natural instability of extremes forms a basis of my market breadth trading rules. The enthusiastic post-election surge exhausted buyers enough to create a post-election reversal. Moreover, my … Read more