Market commentary for Oct. 4th, 2011

Tuesday's charts are of a longer period than previous charts for a while. I have put together charts of the Dow, S&P and Russell 2000 each for 3 year periods. I have drawn a number of red lines showing where support is and where you can see we may be headed. First the charts and then some commentary:



The Dow broke below recent previous lows and while it barely is below those lows, the trend looks like we are going lower. The bottom of the Dow's range is 10,000, which is 655 points lower from where it closed today. We could just as easily climb above today's lows, but we should be going lower, as the news in Europe has not solved the Greek Debt crisis and Greece today said they did not reach their goals around there promised austerity targets they had committed to the EU. That was a major reason the markets ignored good news today regarding the ISM number which came in at a 51.6 reading against an expectation of only 50.0.

The S&P500 shows a larger drop against the previous lows and the Russell 2000 shows an even greater drop. By the way, Germany's DAX Index is also going lower as is the CAC40 and FTSE, but I didn't put up those charts today. News isn't mattering these days. Lowering ones risk is what is driving the world markets now!

Greek Debt issue not really resolved yet.

The Greek Debt issue is not resolved according to reports from Bloomberg.com and other news outlets. Their Bonds have dropped sharply and there are strikes in the streets of Greece over austerity measures being proposed by the government to show creditors they have the backbone to do what is necessary to get the financing of their debt issue resolved.

This is important because if this issue is now resolved soon, the World stock markets could take a turn for the worse and a major correction could be precipitated as this spark becomes a roaring fire. The next 30 days are key here. A defensive position in stocks is warranted at this time in my view. Our stock markets are very over bought and so we are in position for a long awaited correction anyway, with the recent lows of the VIX Index and the low of 0.56 for the Put to Call ratio. Add to that the sentiment of investors has reached high levels of optimism , while Volume has decreased in this market rise and you have all the necessary ingredients for a major correction. Fair Warning!

Market outlook: Correction ahead amid turbulence during Greek debt crisis

I had a close friend ask me my opinion of the markets last night. I gave it to him but thought I would use the opportunity and show a chart on my Blog. In the 5 year chart above of the Nikkei 225 versus the Dow, you will notice that the Dow appears ahead of itself compared to the Nikkei. The Dow has been behind the Dow for the past 3 out of 5 years but recently has gotten ahead of itself and risen too rapidly.

The Euro has hit an 11 month low on concern that the Greek debt crisis may not get resolved in time, as Germany shows concerns about the issue. Germany is showing reluctance to subsidizing emergency loans for Greece and this may hold up efforts by the European Union to reach agreement on terms of a proposed financial lifeline for Greece.

The Dow did hit 11,000 yesterday and looks as though it has petered out. The Volume for the past week is lower than it has been recently. When Volume is low and price increases, that is a bearish sign. However, I have been saying that since the Dow climbed back to 10,600 and here we are at near 11,000. As long as the government plays will the addition of more money into the economy through a variety of measures by the Fed and the Treasury, predictions are going to be impossible with any merit. As I have said many times before, the game is rigged and it is rigged more now than at any time in my lifetime.I continue to be cautious. Painfully, I still own my short positions even while I retain stocks and have benefited the ride up of the market with my long positions. This week I bought more shares of ZSL (a Silver ETF Ultra Short) at $3.78, as Silver climbed over $18/ounce again. ZSL correspondingly hit a new 52 week low of $3.65. As you can see from the 10 year Silver chart, we are at a high price for Silver comparing 10 years of data and I do believe this is a good reason for me to own ZSL, as we are bound to correct again back to $12-$13/ounce in my opinion. Time will tell. Stay tuned.