You don't want to short a market in a confirmed up trend. At least not very often. I mean, why go against the trend in place. For the most part, this will just bring about bad results. On the other hand, as we trade closer to the top of the range, the market doesn't seem to want to explode up and out either. You do have to hand it to the bulls overall though. Even though they can't seem to break away from S&P 500 1100, they are keeping the pressure on the bears seemingly day after day. Like a boxer who doesn't have the power to knock out his opponent but who wins the fight by jabbing his opponent in to submission.

Pullbacks are shorter and shorter in duration as time moves on. Higher highs. Higher lows. Yet somehow we keep finding ourselves very close to S&P 500 1100. With today's overall upside action, we find the market at a juncture of no return. It's time blast or time for a larger pullback. Although we can sell off at any time to unwind things, the bears need to get moving now or they will find themselves covering more short positions all over again. So here we are. Close to, yet another breakout, and with the market telling me not to short, even though there seems to be reasons to do so, being so close to major resistance. Interesting times indeed.

When you look at the market from a purely fundamental perspective, I can admit to all of you that there's very little reason to be involved on the bullish side of things. I mean, come on here. The New York State manufacturing report this morning was nothing short of a total disaster. A massive decline down month over month. The kind of number that could have destroyed this market today if things were behaving normally. Retail sales weren't very good either. While the news did hit the futures some, they held on to most of their gains, and once the market opened, things went higher still. That's the fundamental story.

The market doesn't seem to care what that story is telling. Not for now. Why, you ask? Two reasons. The market is looking out far ahead and seeing a fed that won't raise rates for an extremely long time, even though you're all hearing rumors to the contrary. They will stay near, or at zero, for maybe a year or longer. In addition, the market, looking out ahead, seems to see things we don't at this point. That things will be better than we think. Our job isn't to argue with what we see. Our job is to play what we see, and for now, that message remains to be long or to be cash, but not to be short.

The story seems to be, more than anything else, the total collapse going on almost daily with the dollar (UUP). Breaking major support today and having a very hard time even bouncing from oversold levels. No one seems to want to touch it and when a vehicle is broken such as this, few want to stand in the way of it.

As the dollar collapses, commodity stocks are moving higher. Commodity prices globally are shooting higher. Gold (GLD) is surging. The market is behaving well overall and confounding the "experts" such as Meredith Whitney, who have been short and wrong for quite some time, and come on CNBC daily shouting their case of how the market just isn't getting it right. The market is moving almost perfectly in inverse fashion to the dollar, so until that piece of paper can get a reversal, you have to feel the market is going to continue to frustrate the masses, even the very best of over paid "experts".

Strong longer-term support remains at those 50-day exponential moving averages well below the closing prices tonight across all the major indexes. Until the bears can convincingly close this market below those levels, you have to take every selling opportunity as a buying one. Recently we had closes below on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, but not on the Dow.

Not only that, the S&P 500 closed slightly below, but there was no follow through, thus within a few days the S&P 500 blasted back over once the bears saw they couldn't bring things down further, as a true breakdown would indicate under normal circumstances. Strange times, but that's the way we have to look at things. It's lose the 50-day exponential moving averages on all the major indexes or bust for the bears. I, by no means, am saying that won't or can't happen. It can. I am not trying to chide the bears. I'm not! I am simply reporting what is taking place and what we have to look towards to play appropriately. The message still seems to be that above the 50's things are in good shape.

Peace

Jack

Jack Steiman is author of SwingTradeOnline.com ( www.swingtradeonline.com ). Former columnist for TheStreet.com, Jack is renowned for calling major shifts in the market, including the market bottom in mid-2002 and the market top in October 2007.

Mr. Steiman's commentaries and index analysis represent his own opinions and should not be relied upon for purposes of effecting securities transactions or other investing strategies, nor should they be construed as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy any security. You should not interpret Mr. Steiman's opinions as constituting investment advice. Trades mentioned on the site are hypothetical, not actual, positions.

Jack Steiman Archive

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in

The Market Oracle is a FREE Financial Markets Forecasting & Analysis web-site.
(c) 2005-2024 MarketOracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd) - Market Oracle Ltd asserts copyright on all articles authored by our editorial team and all comments posted. Any and all information provided within the web-site, is for general information purposes only and Market Oracle Ltd do not warrant the accuracy, timeliness or suitability of any information provided on this site. nor is or shall be deemed to constitute, financial or any other advice or recommendation by us. and are also not meant to be investment advice or solicitation or recommendation to establish market positions. We do not give investment advice and our comments are an expression of opinion only and should not be construed in any manner whatsoever as recommendations to enter into a market position either stock, option, futures contract, bonds, commodity or any other financial instrument at any time. We recommend that independent professional advice is obtained before you make any investment or trading decisions. By using this site you agree to this sites Terms of Use. From time to time we promote or endorse certain products / services that we believe are worthy of your time and attention. In return for that endorsement and only in the cases where you purchase directly though us may we be compensated by the producers of those products.