The major stock indexes trading back and forth the unchanged level today - with a mildly positive bias - with modest gains going into the close run on low volume.
Officially, the Dow Industrials advanced 0.2% on NYSE volume of 5.2 billion shares, while the NASDAQ rose 0.3% on 2.2 billion. The leadership profile remains weak, though positive for now, with 145 stocks making new highs versus 51 making new lows.
The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, non-confirming the bullish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.
The stock market recent weakness is likely to get worse before it has a chance of getting better, though there is not enough technical damage yet to confirm a change in trend from bull to bear has landed for real. So expect further losses, followed by some decent snap-back runs into the green as this week unfolds, before we get a more lasting decision going into the weekend.
While our trend indicators are weakening, and a sell signal coming out of all this choppy action would not surprise us one bit, we do not expect such a reversal sell signal to land before Thursday or Friday at the earliest. Thus this week is about sitting tight and letting the bulls and bears give us a “show me” decision going into the weekend. History says a four week plunge to test the 200 day moving averages is the most likely outcome going forward, though the next few days should be much to do about nothing as red and green volatility swings back and forth to keep the sellers of ulcer medications in business. Stay awake - though yawn a lot - and get ready for some trades later in the week, is our advice.
Please note that the stock pricing updates was not complete at time of publishing this update, thus the performance data shown is from Friday. Sorry for the inconvenience, but accurate data should be up and running by tomorrow.
401K investors should have ˝ of their portfolio invested in a stock index, or aggressive growth, mutual fund, with the other ˝ remaining in a money market fund.
The Index portfolio is ˝ invested in QQQQ with the other ˝ remaining in cash.
Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.