It has been a great stock market rally, with $SPX advancing 200 points in about a month. But the advance is slowing, and sell signals are setting up (although none has actually been confirmed yet).
$SPX has minor support at 2030 and also below there, at 2000.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained solidly on buy signals for nearly a month. They are dropping rapidly on their charts, and it's bullish for stocks as long as they continue to decline.
The bears seemed to have the fight knocked out of them by the big rally from 1820 (on Oct 15th) to here. $SPX moved steadily higher yesterday, and closed at another new all-time high. Meanwhile, the upper 4-sigma “modified Bollinger Band” (mBB) continues to decline because of the decrease in volatility. It is now just below 2021, and with $SPX at 2038, you can see that it’s quite a ways above that Band – in overbought territory, if you will.
The rally continues to push to new all-time highs in most of the major broad-based indices ($SPX, $OEX, Dow, etc.). The advance has been so straight and fast that it hasn't left any support levels in its wake. The only one was at 2001, so a pullback below 2000 would be negative.
The rally has been a straight-up affair, leaving a "V" bottom in its wake. Fortunately, our indicators have generated a strong series of buy signals along the way.
Since $SPX has sliced through virtually every conceivable resistance area, it makes it difficult to identify either support and resistance at this point. However, the overbought conditions that now exist have -- in the past -- caused the market to stop rising.
The stock market has rocketed back from a sharp selloff last week. At first, this appeared to be an oversold rally, but now it is picking up steam. Thus, it appears that it could be another intermediate-term bullish move, if one final thing falls into place: the $SPX chart must clearly turn positive.
The stock market’s rally yesterday was beyond strong; it was downright Herculean. The shorts have been crushed, just a week after they seemed to be in control of things. But are the bulls on safe ground here, or is the market poised to lurch downward again? That’s a tough question to answer, but it certainly does seem that things are a bit overdone on the upside and some backing a filling is needed – at a minimum.
Stocks have had a rocky week, but some buy signals are beginning to appear. $SPX broke down through support at 1925 this week, and immediately plunged to 1820, which is also the area of the April lows. That is support for now. If that should give way, then the February lows at 1740 would be the next support area.
As for resistance, there is plenty of overhead resistance from 1925 all the way up to 1960 and beyond.
The stock market has become extremely volatile, trading up and down hundreds of Dow Jones points in a day. But our indicators have remained steadfastly bearish throughout the last few weeks. For example, despite several big rally days, $SPX never broke the downtrend line that connects its series of lower highs. Until that downtrend is broken, the $SPX chart will be bearish.
Not every October is a bearish market (at least for a while), but many of them are. Last year, there was an 80-point decline in $SPX from late September into the early part of October; and in 2012, there was a 120-point decline. In 2011, there was plenty of bearish action, but it occurred in August and September, with the actual lows being made on October 1st. In 2010, the market rallied through October.
