Market comment for Nov. 9th

In the first several hours of trading this morning the Put to Call ratio was 0.59 and 0.60, which again is relatively low for the past 7 months. The markets are negative at this time but not by a lot. The Dow is down 35 points as I type this. This morning Wholesale Inventories data for Sept. was released. It was up 1.5% while expectations were for 0.6%. The month of August was revised upwards as well from a reading of 0.8% to 1.2%, which means inventories are building.

Yesterday's Dow candlestick pattern was a Hammer, which usually means a reversal to a trend. This is consistent with the Put to Call ratio going low and signaling a sell reading. Additionally, Insider Selling has increased as well.

Market summary for Nov. 19th

Just a short entry today on the stock market action. First, it is clear we did go up above the 3 year downtrend line I have been discussing in many several previous posts. (see Nov. 14th post) Secondly, the candlestick pattern for all 3 indexes was a "Hammer" pattern. I was looking at the 6 month Dow chart, as shown above and the more easily seen 1 month chart and noticed that this Hammer pattern has not occurred on the way up in the entire 6 month chart. It is easier to see what a Hammer pattern looks like from today's close in the 1 month chart. The significance of the Hammer pattern is that it usually signals the end of a trend. In this case it is the up trend the Dow has had now for many months. Let's see if there is follow through over the next few weeks.