Market comments for Aug. 23rd

I thought before I make any comments about tomorrow that I would show a few comparison charts of the Nikkei and Dow over a 1 year period, as well as the Nikkei vs the S&P500. Both charts are using Log scale. You can see from the Nikkei vs. Dow chart that the Dow has not dropped compared to the Nikkei. It has trended up the past month while the Nikkei has retreated to the bottom of this time period, as indicated by the red line. The S&P 500 has also risen but if you look at the last few chart points it has dropped lower than the Dow for the same period. Again the gap between the lines are at the widest over the one year period. I believe this is indicative that are markets are more out of touch with the reality of the economy and are artificially inflated. However I believe these charts will show narrowing between the lines as the Dow and S&P get closer to the Nikkei and all will drop shortly.

Not any real news on the economy being announced tomorrow so we may get a short tempered rally after Options expired last Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are more important days to watch for economic news. Thursday's are always releasing Initial Jobless Claims and on Tuesday we get data on Existing Home Sales. I will post all the economic data in my next Blog post and what to expect this week. Don't forget to come back.