Non-Confirmations
The Short-Term Tea Leaves: Suddenly Wilting?
The “Nothin’ Matters” market lifted the S&P 500 to eight all-time highs in the nine trading days through July 7th. It’s been difficult to assail the stock market’s technical merits, but there are suddenly some short-term cracks among the handful of market indexes we consider “bellwethers.”
August Is No Time To Disconnect
Rather than stocks disconnecting from the economy, as some equity bears contend, we see the blue chips disconnecting from the rest of the market. The underperformance of leading groups, along with multimonth divergences in momentum, bullish sentiment, and credit spreads are all consistent with the deteriorating prospects for earnings and the economy.
Stock Market Observations
It’s telling that the stock market rally off of the Christmas Eve lows—impressive as it was (and, for some investors, painful)—did not manage to lift the Major Trend Index beyond its neutral zone.