March 17, 2019

This market reminds me of late 1999 when stocks kept running straight up, defying gravity. In this market, however, there is no gravity, there is only QE. The flood of liquidity that remains in the system and which may be expanding again as central banks around the globe move to reverse their earlier gestures toward tightening continues to drive stocks ever higher. After a brief pullback... Read More

March 13, 2019

I wrote over the weekend that, “Friday’s action had the feel of a low-volume shakeout on the fifth day of a sell-off from the recent highs.” The action so far this week has confirmed that assessment. If there has been any wrinkle to the trading week it has been the fact that big-stock NASDAQ names have been surging, led by Apple (AAPL). The stock was upgraded... Read More

March 10, 2019

The major market indexes spent the week selling off. A steady slide for four-straight days was capped off on Friday with a weak 20,000 jobs number and overnight news of plunging Chinese exports. The Chinese markets were also roiled by news that the U.S. and China are still far from a trade agreement. This sent the S&P 500, the NASDAQ Composite Index,... Read More

March 6, 2019

Leading cloud software names took some heat on Monday as the indexes sold off on higher volume. In the same way that these stocks have moved in lock-step higher since the Christmas Eve lows, they all sold off in lock-step on Monday, some more sharply than others. Here we see Workday (WDAY) start the week off with a two-day... Read More

March 3, 2019

The weekly charts of the indexes paint a picture of perfection since the Christmas Eve lows. The NASDAQ Composite Index claimed its tenth-straight week to the upside since those lows this past week, closing at a higher closing high on the daily on lighter daily volume. On the daily chart, the index remains within a five-day consolidation along the 200-dma. The... Read More

February 27, 2019

The NASDAQ Composite Index has closed higher for nine-straight weeks before running into two days of selling to start this week. The last time the NASDAQ had a streak like this was in the middle of 2016, when it ran up for eight-straight weeks. It then went sideways for the next eight weeks before breaking out and moving higher again. The selling perhaps... Read More

February 24, 2019

Friday gave us six dovish Fed heads speaking, six “Memoranda of Understanding” resulting (from U.S.-China Trade talks), and the Trump Administration announcing (just about everything regarding the current U.S.-China trade talks except an actual trade agreement). All that was missing was a partridge in a pear tree, but it gave the market the fuel it needed to keep rallying. The NASDAQ... Read More

February 20, 2019

The indexes started the week off with higher highs, as the NASDAQ Composite Index pushed just a bit further above its 200-dma. This keeps it in step with the other two Big-Three market indexes, both of which have pushed a reasonable distance beyond their own 200-dmas. Today, the NASDAQ churned along its 200-dma on slightly higher volume, but so far is holding tight... Read More

February 17, 2019

More trade hype from the Trump Administration on Friday as it hailed an agreement on an alleged Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and China on trade sent the market higher again. This time, the NASDAQ Composite Index finally cleared its 200-dma, thanks to a burst of late-day buying. It now joins the other two Big-Three major market indexes above... Read More

February 13, 2019

The S&P 500 Index became the second of the big-three major market indexes to clear its 200-dma, doing so yesterday by the razor-thin margin of 1.36 points. The market was helped along yesterday by the announcement of a budget deal that will avoid a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. this Saturday morning and continued hopes of a U.S.-China trade deal. A benign but in my... Read More