Here's wishing all of you out there a very happy and prosperous 2010 ahead!

Santa Claus Taking a Breather...

Santa Claus Rally breaks today as the Dow closes sideways by 1 point, ending the 6 days winning streak.

As expected, the Nasdaq composite started to ease off a little today due to extreme short term overbought condition and has put pressure across the board. Clearly, the market has come to the end of yet another mini rally and needs to ease off a little before it can find the energy to go on higher. The Santa Claus rally has worked well this year and the optimism created should prevent any strong retreat before New Year is over. However, that didn't stop me from taking profit on some of my profitable trades today.

As for the Dow, its not strange to see it revisit its 30MA which is about 10,400 within the next few trading days. This recent "sneak out" of its short term neutral channel did not produce the kind of momentum needed to call a break out and is also what kept it in short term neutral trend in my classifications below.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Santa Claus Rally Dying?

Optimism continues in the market today as buyers took back lost ground by the end of the day closing the Dow up by 27 points.

Volume returned to the market slowly today as buyers fought back profit takers, continuing the santa claus rally into its 6th consecutive trading day. The Nasdaq composite also continued its rally, closing up 5 points. However, what is evident today is that the rally is getting tired. The Nasdaq composite closed the day with a topside doji candle which might lead to an evening star if it close lower tomorrow. Being already in a deep short term overbought condition, a lower close tomorrow leading to a slight 3 to 5 days retreat for the Nasdaq composite seems to be in order.

Both the Dow and the S&P500 closed significantly above their respective short term neutral channels but I would still be hesitant calling them breakouts as they lack the volume and power of a real breakout. They behaved more like a "Sneak Out" rather than a "Break Out", which could come under pressure if the Nasdaq Composite, which has played the role of leader so far, retreats as I expect it to. Which is why I would still classify the Dow as short term neutral for now.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Happy New Year Week!

Did you enjoy your Christmas? Well, its more holiday this week with New Year coming up on Friday and another half day trading on Thursday. Yes, exactly the same as last week and I do expect the trading action to be somewhat the same as well.

It was a low volume, bullish week last week with the Dow gaining 211 points and the Nasdaq Composite gaining an awesome 105 points. Yes, this is the Santa Claus rally. The Santa Claus rally is a rally that happens during the Christmas and New Year week and has happened 8 out of the last 10 years. As the Santa Claus rally usually last through January of the following year, it is also known as the January Effect. There are also good underlying reasons for the January Effect as institutions take up positions due to tax considerations. The S&P500 also broke out of its short term neutral channel last week and with the Dow now right at the top of the channel, I would expect it to also break out this week.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Santa Claus Rally Continues...

The Dow went sideways today, closing up by 1 point as the Nasdaq composite continues it warpath upwards by 0.75%.

Strength in the Nasdaq Composite continued today as it rallied yet another 17 points, creating widespread speculation that 2010 may all be about tech stocks. The Dow and the S&P500 continues to wobble within their short term neutral channels with the S&P500 showing signs of pushing out of the range upwards. Trading volume was extremely low as expected and none of these optimism has anything to do with anything in the news. Yes, santa claus rally is pretty much underway this year and is expected to last all the way through New Year as it has always done, leading on to the January effect, which I will talk more about next week.

Tomorrow's Christmas eve and a half day trading. Volume is expected to be even lower with odds favoring yet another positive close. Merry Christmas Everyone!

See you back next week!

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Typical Low Volume Day Ahead of Christmas

The Dow gained 50 points today on recovering retail sales and existing home sales.

Investors looked past a lower than expected Q3 final GDP and placed their optimistic votes on a higher retail sales for the week and better than expected existing home sales (see Stock Market Calendar). I see today's market action as more of a follow up on yesterday's optimism and clearly, these are that few late comers to the party as trading volume is way lower than average today.

The Dow is once again at the top of its short term neutral channel, yes the moment of truth again. If the Nasdaq composite is going to lead a breakout, its going to be over the next couple of days. Otherwise, its back down to the bottom of the channel again at 10250. I am not picking up significant short term bullish momentum yet and the only thing going for a breakout scenario is the fact that the Nasdaq has broken out and has followed up higher today. As such, odds continue to favor a topside breakout on the Dow for the short term.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Nasdaq Composite Leads Breakout!

What an exciting start to Christmas week! The Nasdaq Composite led the way by staging a breakout of its short term neutral channel, gaining 25 points while the Dow gained 85 points.

Sure looks like Santa Claus rally in the making today as the Nasdaq Composite became the first of the 3 major indices to stage a topside breakout of its short term neutral channel. Yes, all 3 major indices have been trapped in a short term neutral channel for the past month and we have been keeping tabs on the Dow on this issue. The Nasdaq breakout today certainly does paint an optimistic picture and setup the possibility that the other 2 major indices would do the same over the next couple of days.

There were no major releases today, so its purely investors' and traders' votes. This surge in optimism was also echoed in the options market as CBOE total equities put call ratio ditched strongly in favor of call options transactions (see Put Call Ratio Graph). Overall, today is a decidedly positive day on average volume.

Such strong performance could almost certainly lead to a profit taking on Christmas eve itself so any short term profitable trades should be profit taking candidates by then.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Welcome to Christmas Week!

Welcome to Christmas Week!

Yes, this is a holiday shortened week with half day trading on Thursday and Christmas holiday on Friday. In fact, many people all over the world are already on holiday and won't be trading this week. Looking back into history, the SP500 has been up on 8 Christmas weeks over the past 10 years with significantly lower volume on most of them. So, will the santa claus rally come back this year?

On the news front, we have the GDP on Tuesday and Durable goods orders on Thursday, both are important economic numbers that will certainly provide a catalyst for a Santa Claus rally if they turn out better than expected (see Stock Market Calendar).

On the technical front, the Dow continues to trade within its short term neutral channel with no signs of a breakout. This short term neutral channel is a tight one bounded by 10250 and 10500. Since it is once again at the bottom of this channel, it will not be surprising to see the Dow go upwards this week back up to the top of the channel. The only question that remains is, will there be a breakout? I maintain that the probability of a topside breakout continues to be more probable than a bottomside breakout.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Feds Hold Rates Steady...

The Dow closed marginally lower by 10.88 points today on profit taking following the FOMC Announcement.

The FOMC, short for Federal Open Market Committee, is when the members of the Federal Reserve headed by Bernanke, sit together to discuss monetary policy every month. It is a one day meeting that started on Tuesday and announced their decision today. Of course their decision was nothing out of the ordinary as they are expected to hold rates steady for a significantly longer period of time. Which could be why we saw that profit taking following the announcement. Market was up on great housing starts before the Fed announcement.

So what started as a pretty optimistic day, ended as a sideways day with the Dow still inside that congested short term neutral channel. As I mentioned yesterday, with so much volatility going on this week, I don't think we will see a decisive breakout this week.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Empire State Index Disappoints...

The Dow corrected down marginally by 49 points today as the Empire State Index disappoints.

The Empire State Manufacturing Index is a survery conducted monthly on various aspects of manufacturing in the New York region and is believed to lead the all important ISM index, which is what gave it its importance. The Empire State Index's general business condition index is what investors and traders watch out for. Reading above 0 indicates expansion and below 0, contraction. The Empire State Index turned in a disappointing 2.55 vs consensus of 25. The wide gap between the consensus number and the actual number caused equities to open in the red and remained red for the rest of the session.

The Empire State Index may only be part of the reason for the sell off today and a spike in put options transactions as reflected in the total equities put call ratio today (see Put Call Ratio Graph). The other part may be due to the FOMC announcement coming up tomorrow, which will definitely rock the market as it always does as well as Quadruple Witching on Friday, making profit taking a more sensible thing this week.

On the technical front, the Dow failed once again right at the top of its short term neutral channel but it isn't a severe failure as bullish momentum still remains in the ultra short term trend. As such, I would consider today's move more sideways than downwards. With so much volatility going on this week, I do not see the possibility of a strong breakout within this week.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Optimistic Start For The Week

The Dow followed up today into its fourth consecutive up days, closing up by a marginal 29 points in a low volume trading day.

In a day without any economic releases nor market moving news, investors decided to remain optimistic. Today's move brought the DOW right on the top of its short term neutral channel with plenty of strength left to stage a breakout. Short term bullish momentum continues to rise today, increasing the chance of a topside breakout within this week. Tomorrow's Empire State index (see Stock Market Calendar) might also provide the catalyst should it turn out better than expected.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Volatile Week Ahead...

Welcome to one of the most volatile weeks of the year. This week, we have the FOMC Announcement on Wednesday as well as Quadruple Witching on Friday (see Stock Market Calendar). These events are extremely volatile and not for the faint of heart.

The Dow continued to move sideways within its short term neutral channel last week and is now once again at the top of the channel. However, there are 2 positive points at this point. First, the Dow rebounded off its 30MA nicely last week and everytime it does that, it usually rebounds to new highs. Secondly, the short term bullish momentum which was lacking last week appeared at last, providing fuel for a topside breakout. The negative this week would be volatility. I suspect that even if a breakout occurs, it would quickly be taken back by the end of the week.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Stimulus Package Extended.

The Dow gained marginally by 51 points today as the financial bailout fund is extended to October 2010.

Optimism returned to the market today as investors received word that the financial simulus package isn't going to end at the end of the year afterall. The $700 billion fund, which was due to end its work at the end of the year, was extended to October 2010. Many other nations also extended their economic stimulus plans in order to help this recovering economy stand firm.

This helped the Dow bounce right off its daily 30MA, which is its short term support level, intraday. However, there is still no signs of a return of short term bullish momentum from our short term indicators and I suppose it needs to build up over the next few days. This also makes the possibility of a topside breakout of this narrow short term neutral channel this week pretty remote.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Store Sales Disappoints...

The Dow dropped by 104 points today as store sales reported much worse than expected holiday sales.

Store sales (see Stock Market Calendar) reported in -1.3% today vs last week's -0.1%, indicating worsening consumer spending once again and poor holiday sales. In fact, year on year change fell from 3.1% to 2.6%, erasing much of the hope for the return of consumers this year. Yes, with lower accessibility to credit, we should not see holiday sales the way they were before the crisis. Almost everyone purchased on credit in the credit based society that has been created in the US and is what has been driving sales every holiday.

Market opened deeply red and stayed red throughout the session. However, little to no change was seen in the bonds and options market. The bond yield curve remained relatively still and total equities put call ratio remained completely still. This shows that speculators and traders are still mainly on the watch and could buy into the dip tomorrow when market opens.

On the technical front, whatever little short term bullish momentum built up by the Dow over the past week diminished all at once today. In fact, today's close is a dangerous one as it is the lowest close since 13 November. Yes, it is indeed unreasonable for the Dow to stage a topside breakout without first taking a break and retesting the 50MA like it has done over the past few months. Volatility is the order of the day with the market this toppy. In fact, even if traders do step in tomorrow, it will hardly change anything. Probability remains very low for a topside breakout as long as the Dow doesn't go back to a short term oversold condition.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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Unemployment Rate Reverses

US unemployment rate reverses from 10.2% down to 10% and beat consensus of 10.2%. In fact, Nonfarm payroll change beat consensus by a mile, turning in at -11k against consensus of -100k. So, what does this tell us? That the economic recovery is real. All we need now is one more month of unemployment rate drop to confirm that this is not another "fake-out". The stock market moves ahead of the real economy and much of these has already been priced into the year long rally so far. This is probably why we did not see a breakout on this news last Friday. There was extremely heavy buying followed by extremely heavy selling, which resulted in a sideways day with extremely high volume, much like a quadruple witching day. The Dow continued to move largely short term neutral last week, closing the week up by a marginal 0.77%.

Yes, the charts tell us that the market is still under considerable pressure and that most likely much of these optimism has been priced in and profit taking may be underway to close accounts for the year before January. This is also the longest short term neutral trend the Dow has been in since this new leg up begun in July. Short term momentum looks balanced at the moment with no significant inclination to upside or downside.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Secret Bullishness Today

The US market sold off towards the end of the day closing the Dow down 86 points.

There was no news to trigger the sell off we saw at the end of the day and it can only boil down to profit taking prior to an uncertain jobs report tomorrow (see Stock Market Calendar). Yes, unemployment rate is one of the best indicators of the end of the recession for the real economy and that is one indicator that has not turned yet. Certainly traders who has made a good profit so far would want to take some profit off just to be sure. However, unemployment rate has to turn one day and every jobs report brings us closer to that unemployment rate reversal which would certainly spark off a new rush of buying. I won't want to miss out. We have waited long enough, why bail out now?

Even though equities were largely negative today, options trading was unusually bullish as Put Call Ratio dipped by a huge 21 basis point, suggesting that speculators are actually rushing in on the bullish side. That makes us think that today's sell off may be a faker allowing big time traders to set up using call options for a recovery tomorrow, pocketing a huge profit (see Daily Put Call Ratio Chart).

For now, the Dow is still trapped within that tight short term neutral channel that I pointed out a few days ago. Short term bullish momentum took a hit and

does not look poised for a breakout. I suspect we would get clearer indications tomorrow when the market turns around.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

Chart of Dow Made Using Telechart. Want Your Own Charting Software? Download FREE Now!

Happy Jolly Day!

Investors cheered a better than expected store sale and auto sale today, closing the Dow up 126 points.

Index futures were already sky high prior to market opening today as store sales and auto sales (see Stock Market Calendar) beat expectations. Investors also came to the realisation that the Dubai World incident really isn't as big a deal as the media made it to be. The Dow zipped right up upon opening and traded flat for the rest of the day. In fact, investors were so optimistic that they looked past the ISM index which failed to beat expectations. Indeed, like I mentioned yesterday, some volatility in the ISM index at this level is to be expected and nothing to be made a fuss about.

Even through today's rally still kept the Dow within a narrow short term neutral channel, the probability of a topside breakout is now extremely high with the Dow way off short term overbought condition with short term bullish momentum rising. The 30MA is once again at a comfortably close proximity and could guide the Dow higher from here onwards.

For now, the Dow remains in short term neutral trend within an intermediate and long term bull trend.

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