Stock market direction? Nothing has really changed!

Since the beginning of August, when the stock market had its big drop based upon the announcement of the Fed that they were going to keep Interest rates low until 2013, nothing much has really changed. We have been in a tight range that does't feel so tight because of the high volatility. One week we are just below 11,000, wondering if we are going to hold support here or go lower and the next we are back up to 11,500 wondering if we can break much above this apparent resistance level. It has been worrisome for most investors but not for day traders. The best day traders are making some money, but the rest of us watch in disbelief.

I have compiled some 1 year charts below to reiterate and reenforce previous posts where I said we are in a tight range but now we are closer to a breakout, one direction or another. I have stated many times I believe this direction is lower, so no sense repeating much more than that.

This week Germany's Lower House of Parliament approved increasing the proposed EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) expanding the euro-area rescue fund's fire power to stem the region's debt crisis. To read more about this Fund and the politics in Germany over this issue, click here. This seemed to move their stock market higher but as the week progressed you can see in the charts below, it pulled back.




You can see I have drawn red lines showing support levels and Blue lines showing resistance levels. You will also note that since the drop in August we have stayed below the 50 day moving average consistently. This line might be a good indicator to track market direction so that you are not fooled as we many during the Bear Trap so noted on a number of charts by the blue circle covering their mistaken purchases. Use these charts as a reminder of where we are and above all remember the Fed doesn't think we are going to get better until at least 2013!

This coming week on Friday, we will get the Unemployment rate for September. This could move markets. Also on Monday be watching for the ISM Index at 10:am EST or 7:00am PST. Expectations are for a reading of 50.5 and the previous month the number was 50.6. I expect the number to come in at 50.0 or less, given the lack of business activity there was in September. Earnings also will be front and center now for the next 4 weeks. You will be hearing about "beating expectations" by companies. Remember, these predictions were lowered last time so that beating these expectations should not be difficult.

Market comments for Sept. 23, 2011: Another down day

The stock market is going to open in 1/2 hour. The Dow Futures are down another 110 points pointing to a lower open. As a reminder of where we are now, I have included 2 charts today. One is of the Dow and the other is for Germany's DAX index. I have placed an "X" on the Dax chart to where the market is currently as its market is open. The DAX is very close to the 5000 level. The German DAX is trending clearly down from the red lines I have drawn. Our Dow chart matched the recent low and I fully expect all our Indexes will go lower. We are in the second inning of a 9 inning game and more is to come to the downside. As I have stated before, this drop will not be straight down as there will be days up. So it will look more like a zig-zag pattern. I am pretty confident the market will close down today because no one wants to buy stocks today going into an uncertain weekend. Also, yesterday's volume was heavy at 300 Million traded on the Dow.


Here are the charts:

Market comments for Sept. 20, 2011

Today I have a series of 3 charts to show you, but before I do a little explanation and commentary. Over the past several months now our US market has been in a relatively tight range of between 11,500 and 11,000. It has been a stated fact by many analysts that the US market is following the European markets due to the concern of a default of Greece. Even as recently as this past weekend, there was news that the governments bailing out Greece wanted to extract some guarantees that Greece was serious and they wanted to see Greece promise to layoff about 100,000 government workers. So that is the backdrop story.

I have put together a chart of Germany's DAX Index, France's CAC 40 Index and the Dow. All are 1 year in duration as of the close yesterday. First the charts and then the commentary.



As you can see from the charts above, Germany and France's Indexes are still apparently going lower and the Dow and other US Indexes seem to be not following the most recent trend as show by my red lines. To me I interpret this to mean that 2 scenarios are possible, First and to me the most likely scenario is that any more of a drop by these European markets may result in a sharper drop by the Dow. The other scenario is that we will disconnect from these European markets and stay within our tight range until our own economic results determine our separate direction. Much depends right now on the politics of the negotiations by Congress over the next few months and to whether the joint committee will be able to agree on spending cuts and revenue increases. However, be forewarned that Europe is really driving our markets and we could be setting up an alarming drop as many are not prepared for the market to go lower. I was at a party on Sunday afternoon where someone who was talking about the market stated that all indicators he has been watching have flashed a Bull market rally is about to begin. I told him I didn't know what he was watching but I think we are firmly in a Bear market and we are going much lower.

Germany in the news: Market drops over 5% (UPDATES)

Big news in Europe starts off this post this Labor Day. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost weekend elections in her home state, stoking concern opposition is growing to bailouts for debt-saddled European nations. This in turn has caused the German DAX Index to tumble over 5% with only a few hours to go in trading. I will update this post after their market closes. But I do have a chart of the DAX Index for the past few years and you will clearly see that they have broken below the current lows and the implication is that our stock market will follow suit tomorrow. This would accelerate the drop and almost assure a drop below 11,000 again. Here's the chart of the DAX Index:

You can see that todays last data point is lower than the previous recent lows, implying a drop below the red line. Looking back over the years you can see this is an important level not to go below. Their lows correspond to our low of the timeframe when the Dow went to 6,400.

Again I repeat, this week is very important not just here in the US, but also in Germany as on Wednesday there is a vote as to whether they will support the bailout of the debtor nations in Europe like Greece and Italy and Spain. Then add to that news, we have the President's Jobs speech on Thursday and the markets will have a reaction to these events. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: 8:45am PST
From Reuters: "Italian economic growth is likely to fall short of the government's official forecast of 1.1 percent in 2011 and 1.3 percent in 2012, probably coming in under 1 percent, a senior government source said on Monday. "It will be very difficult for Italy to reach 1.1 percent growth this year and next," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters."

Italy's stock benchmark FTSE MIB Index was down 4 percent, with UniCredit SpA (UCG) and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP), Italy’s biggest banks, dropping 5.8 and 6.2 percent, respectively. Markets are getting very rattled in Europe.

Another Update will be given when the German market and European markets close.

UPDATE: 11:05am PST
Germany's DAX Index closed at 5,246 today, down 5.3% at the close. Following Germany's lead were other European Indexes such as France's CAC Index, down 4.7%, Britain's FTSE Index down 3.6% and Italy's FTSE MIB Index which was down 4.8%. This should send ripples in Asian markets tonight and our US markets tomorrow.

Stock market trend: Where we're headed

I have a series of charts this morning, but a little different than previous charts in that each are Weekly charts instead of the usual Daily charts. The value in these charts are that it takes out some of the noise and daily volatility, which makes it more difficult to discern trends.

The charts below, with the exception of the German DAX are all weekly charts covering the past year time period. You will notice there are 100 Day & 200 Day Moving Averages on the US Charts. Oh and if you look at World stock market charts, they appear basically the same.





This last chart below is a Dow 5 year chart and I have drawn many lines showing various support and resistance lines. You can see that for our current time period I have drawn the same slanting downtrend, but now there is a larger context to see this timeframe and possible key levels which will either confirm we continue to drop or we have broken above resistance. For those who are believing we are going to go up from here, pay attention to the red line which crosses at 10,500 on the right axis. If we break below that, we go to the 10,000 level. Also see the red line which crosses at 11,500. That is the tiny box which defines either a rally or a major decline.


I think you get the idea now. The trend is down, we have not really gone much above the lows and it looks as though we are going lower in the weeks ahead. If you doubt that, then buy stocks and Call Options. There will be many willing to sell you their stocks.