US Equity Markets At a Key Juncture Ahead of Jobs Report and Holiday Weekend

SP 500 September Futures Daily Chart

At least a dead cat bounce after a drop such as this to key support. But heading into a holiday weekend with an important non-Farm Payrolls Report and wavering confidence, anything can happen after that.



The SP 500 Cash Weekly Chart give a better perspective on how important a test of support the market is facing.



VIX is approaching levels where one would either expect the market to stabilize and begin to recover its footing, or quickly break down and fall apart.



The Nasdaq Composite is in the same situation, so it is clearly a macroeconomic statement, and not something particular to one index.

SP Futures Daily Chart, Cash Weekly Chart, VIX, and the 50 DMA

A dead hit on support intraday, and a bounce back to support a little higher.

We are in our target bottom for a 'correction' now, and this is where bully must make his stand or risk violating a potential H&S neckline at 1155, with a measuring objective down to 1090 or so.

Keep an eye out for the Non-Farm Payrolls number on Friday.



VIX, the volatility index, has risen to levels not recently seen, and may be signalling at least a temporary hiatus in this decline. If you look at the topmost part of the chart you will see that the nominal SP 500 index has violated its 50 DMA. This is known as 'bad news' and bully needs to do a save here. The NFP report, if properly massaged by the reform government, might do the trick.



The SP 500 cash index weekly chart shows how important the 1150 level as trend support, and how much potential air is underneath it.

Weekly Charts

SP 500 Weekly Chart



SP 500 Sentiment Indicators



Gold



Silver



US Dollar

Gold and the SP 500 Charts

The SP is looking a little 'heavy' going into a holiday short weekend in the States. This is where the bulls need to hold the trend.



Here is where we find out if the Fed and Treasury effort to reflate the financial asset sector will 'stick' or not. Their approach to the bailouts was a political policy error of the first order, almost shockingly naive to see from an Administration headed by skilled politicians. One has to think that Timmy will be a fall guy at some point, with Larry Summers tossing him under a bus.



Watch the lower trend line because if it gets broken and confirmed we could go down for a 50% retracement of this rally, and perhaps further to set a new low. As it is, a 5% corrective in a short holiday week looks likely.



Gold is performing an 'in your face' breakout and holding its gains into an option expiry next week which is wildly bullish. The target on the weekly is 1240ish, and one has to wonder if there will be enough of a pullback to allow the bears to cover their shorts before they are taken out on stretchers. It will take a severe correction in stocks to do it I suspect. But let's see.

SP Weekly Chart Updated

Here is the chart we have been keeping through this decline and now into the bounce.

The bounce will end when it ends. It is a 'false flag' intended to spark a recovery in confidence and the economy. It is fueled by an enormous infusion of liquidity by the Treasury and Federal Reserve into a few favored banks, who are making the bulk of their newly found profits by trading.

The rally cannot be sustained without continuous printing of money. The difficulty with this tried and true monetary approach which has lifted the economy out of the last two bubble breaks is that the financial sector is closer to the heart of the credit bubble than tech or housing, which were just vehicles for the Ponzi scheme.

And the largesse is not being distributed evenly, as relative outsiders like Ken Lewis are finding out. "Not all animals are equal." And not all the pigs have purchased premier positions at the trough.

So, when will it end? On the charts, the area between 1060 and 1100 is likely, since it is in the area of a valid and confirmed neckline. But given the strength with which the SP has penetrated the prior resistance, one has to approach any forecast of an end to a rally like this with fear and trembling, and a generous portion of caution.

Still, our point is not to make a killing for the punters, but rather to help to illuminate the perfidy at the heart of the US financial system. It is truly amazing at how brazen it has become, especially under their token reformer.

The comments on this chart are those that had already been there. All that has been done is to update the chart from July, and to clean it up a bit for readability.

SP Weekly Chart Updated and Some General Thoughts on Trading and Markets

Today we will take a look at the longer term SP 500 weekly price chart, updating the weekly chart which we published on March 23, 2009.

The rally, although sharp, is well within the bounds of expectations for a rally from a major market bottom off a steep decline. It was more than a technical bounce, but has not yet signalled a 'new bull market' despite the optimism of the Wall Street salespeople. Insiders are still diversifying from equities in record numbers, and the "investment banks" (if we can still speak of such an animal in their traditional commercial bank halloween costume) are spending more time 'gaming' the market than investing in the real economy for the longer term.

The target we set for the rally to the neckline around 960 'worked' which tends to validate it, for now, as a proper neckline.

If in fact this neckline holds, and the SP breaks down through key support, the chart formation sets up an objective of 360 on the weekly SP cash chart.

Here is the SP weekly chart update:



Keep in mind that the chart formation is long term, not immediate, and it must be validated further by a breakdown through key support. If, for example, the Federal Reserve decided to monetize even more aggressively than it has been doing, then it would be likely that the neckline would be broken to the upside, and we have a target showing where we think that will go.

Think of these charts as a 'map' to help us see where we have been, the most likely path, and the terrain, the lay of the land. Charts are not firmly predictive, only probabilistic. Those who make contrary claims for their system have always been shown to be exaggerated and highly selective in their result recording and reporting.

Too often "successful" traders merely exploit weaknesses and minor informational or systemic advantages or inefficiencies in the market and in essence place a 'tax' on the other market participants, usually the naive and inexperienced.

Sorry, but that is the way that it is. This even includes some of the 'too big to fail' boys who have no business exploiting the markets which need to function as efficient capital allocation mechanisms.

There is a tendency to seek to gain unfair advantage. The notion of good and rational markets that can self-regulate with participants who voluntarily obey the rules should be an obvious howler to anyone who has recently driven on a major highway. It is a fallen world, and regulation and enforcement are a sine qua non, and always in need of refreshment and improvement as are all things temporal.

Here is the original March chart.



Some traders are better than others, and some much better. The vast majority of people are in no position to trade, and have no temperament for it, and should leave it alone. They are investors, and enjoy a diversity of lifestyle. Trading is a profession, and needs to be respected as such.

The average person who is even in decent physical condition would hardly think to step into the boxing ring with the world heavyweight champion. And yet this same person thinks nothing of placing leveraged wagers in markets dominated by professionals who do little else for a living, heavily influenced even own the rules boards and help to pick the referees and pay their salaries.
So, what next?

The outlook is rather gloomy for the SP 500 in real terms, decidedly. There is no recovery in the real economy, merely fakes and the push and pull of 'flation. The Federal Reserve and the Obama Economic team are not even beginning to address the issues that will create a sustainable recovery, and are just doing the same thing that has failed before. The recovery from the 2003 market lows was nothing more than a monetary credit bubble, glossed up with statistical and accounting frauds. This is just more of the same, to a more extreme, even more cynically corrupt, degree.

So what next?

Gold still looks like a winning place as a store of value in times of corruption, decline and deception, although nothing is certain.



When the time comes and the economy appears to improve it is likely that silver will decidedly outperform gold on a percentage basis. Silver as well as gold are being heavily manipulated by a few banks who have enormous short positions. If they are ever forced to cover these there will be stretchers taking them out of the pits. But do not hold your breath, remembering who owns the casino, and the casino management. Still, all financial frauds and ponzi schemes come to their inevitable messy end. Bernie Madoff may merely not have as much company in prison as he deserves.

Yes, if you were able to time the market and buy the bottom in stocks, and pick the right ones, and hold on until the top, and then take your profits, and not been caught in the plunging decline of 2007, you have some remarkable gains and I wish you well. You are also gambling. As long as you realize this, and manage your money accordingly, you may keep some or even a good portion of your gain.

SP Weekly Chart

SP 500 Weekly Charts

SP Weekly and Monthly Charts Updated at Noon

The question one must ask is whether this is a technical bounce off a short term bottom, or the beginning of somthing more sustained.

Barton Biggs of Traxis Partners is saying today that he expects a thirty to fifty percent rally off this bottom. His reasoning is historic comparison off lows this severe.

If sustained, is this a genuine economic recovery or another monetary reflation and resultant bubble in financial assets.

The charts speak to this, not definitively, but with sufficient weight to be important. Yet another bubble sets us up for a great cascade fall down to 545, with a potential final bottom as low as 380.

The numbers may start to be skewed and distorted on the chart if a more serious monetary inflation in the dollar begins. The commodities and the quality of earnings in the SP 500 will be the 'tell.'

But make no mistake. The Fed and the Obama Administration are firmly committed to monetary inflation and a weaker dollar as another short term cure for the economy.

If the government does not make the fundamental reforms to the financial system and economy to bring back a balance with real wealth creation, it is difficult to see how the dollar and the bond will emerge intact from the next bubble without a further devaluation of 50 percent at least.

The SP 500 and Short Term Indicators

The short term indicators are getting stretched to the downside, and the other narrower indices are approaching their own support levels.

Perhaps a techinical bounce at some point, but no higher than overhead resistance. A stairstep decline such as this can be quite damaging, and often will continue until it finds strong support, a footing and a V bottom. It may require a plunge, otherwise it just keeps bleeding.



The SP 500 seems likely to test the prior low at 741. We may get a legitimate double bottom. The overhead resistance will cap any purely technical bounces. That is how we will tell them apart.



The McClellan Oscillator is getting overextended to the downside.



This has 'plunge to a bottom' written on it. But we might just continue to slowly bleed.

Two Longer Term Charts: Gold and the SP 500

SP 500 Weekly Chart

There has been some interest expressed in seeing this chart in 'the Babson style'

A top in US Treasuries will mark and confirm a bottom in equities.

This ongoing series of crises will be done when bonds and stocks crash together and the dollar is out of favor. Then the rebuilding will begin.