Stock market bulls are keeping the upside pressure on, forcing short covering and other unwanted maneuvers from the bears’ point of view.
The stock market has proved to be very resilient once again. Overbought conditions -- which looked formidable a couple of weeks ago -- have mostly abated with only a slight downward (and mostly sideways) move by the Standard & Poors Index ($SPX). Now, new highs have been registered, and the bears can only lament once again that they failed to capitalize.
$SPX has support in the 1670-1675 area, which is the area of daily lows several times in July.
Stocks were volatile Wednesday, after the FOMC announcements. But, in the end, prices ended up about unchanged. Overnight, though, that changed substantially as a strong rally has unfolded, with S&P futures up 14 points on Globex. Not much has changed with respect to the individual indicators. Both equity-only put-call ratios remain on buy signals. $VIX is still below 15, so that is bullish.
For the second time this year, the feature article discusses the overbought state of the stock market. There are quite a few overbought conditions, and all are enumerated in this article. However, overbought does not mean “sell,” unless some actual sell signals are received – which, so far, have been lacking.
$SPX remains in a strong uptrend. However, it has reached overbought levels, in that it is "too far" above its 200-day moving average. The first support level is 1670, and if that is violated, traders should turn cautious.
The equity-only put-call ratios remain on buy signals, despite "wiggles" at the end of some charts.
When one says that “the market” is overbought, he really means that a number of trusted indicators are in extreme states of bullishness. Recognizing that “the market” is overbought is only moderately useful. That’s because an overbought market can still rise strongly, while remaining overbought. Things work similarly, but in reverse, for oversold markets.
