Although the market had an impressive rally, amidst strong large cap earnings, I continue to fear a reversal to the downside. Keep in mind that the upside MAX objective's I gave out on July 14th were as follows: Nasdaq 2295; Dow 10450, and S&P 500 1104-1115.
The Dow pretty much hit 10450 objective and dropped a bit from there Friday, day 13 of the counter-trend rally. The S&P 500 got about to 1104 as a max, which is a Fibonacci number I had out well over a week ago. The NASDAQ came back up, hit its gap at 2250 it left from the July 16 gap down day (the previous Friday), and went a bit higher to re-test the highs of the prior week.
In all, this still qualifies as part of an A B C correction to the upside after a massive eight week drop to 1011 on the S&P 500 for example from 1219. We have had about three weeks or so of counter-trend rally, which is also a Fibonacci number of weeks colliding with a Fibonacci 13 days of upside correction.
Bearish wedges are forming on various indices, and head and shoulder tops are still all over the place.
The market indices will have to plow through my max top prices for me to turn bullish and call the correction over at the 38% retracement figure of 1011 S&P 500.
For what it's worth, over at my ActiveTradingPartners service we closed out a profitable BGZ bear position right at the 1058 S&P 500 pivot low earlier in the week at about 16.50, and that ETF tanked to 14.50 by the end of this week. That was a Fibonacci Pivot, and a likely C wave up from there was possible so we fortunately timed it right. I also had advised shorting the emerging market indexes, but we worked into a half position there and halted adding to it a few days ago fearing the EEM ETF may rise to 41.20-41.95 first, and we would wait to double down our short there. EEM hit 41.19, one penny off and then fell down into the Friday close a bit.
The strongest index was the Russell 2000, rising over 12% off its recent lows, an impressive rally for sure.
Gold continues to stumble below $1,200 US and I see it next at $1,129-$1,140 on it's way to $1040 to $965 down the road perhaps.
Now what? I suspect that beginning Monday the clouds could start to gather and the remaining vestiges of this rally will wane. Given all the great news from Europe stress tests, the strong corporate earnings, the financial regulations reforms, the unemployment being extended, Goldman Sachs settling, the BP oil leak getting capped.... what is left for the bulls?
So with all the above said, here is my opinion. If those max figures do not get taken out materially, then the best trade near term is to be shorting the various indexes. I suspect buying some BGZ in the last half hour of trade Friday around 14.50-14.70 was a possibly very nice trade entry for this week.
I continue to expect a re-test of 1011 on the S&P 500, re-tests of lows on other indexes, and the Emerging Markets to break down as well. Will I be correct? Sure doesn't look that way today does it?
Can the market bottom after only eight weeks of correction and 38% re-tracement of a 13 month rally? Possibly yes, and for sure I am a long term bull given the larger wave structures. However, the probabilities are slim that that was the bottom in my opinion.
This week we will find out if I was way off base, or if my warnings were worth the time to type them. Please check out my market forecast website at TheMarketTrendForecast.com for samples, testimonials, and options to subscribe.
David A. Banister is founder of ActiveTradingPartners.com and chief strategist for TheMarketTrendForecast.com.
