Dow Breakout or Market Fake Out?

Posted by jeff

Wed Jun 10th, 2009 08:59 AM

Here's the Dow Jones Industrial average, which one would have thought would have confirmed the breakouts in the NASDAQ composite (View image) and S&P 500 (View image), the former having also been bolstered by a golden cross (50 day moving average breaking through the 200 day moving average).



Dow%20Breakout.jpg


Notice that volume in the Dow has been plunging (I penciled in a trend line poorly at the bottom there) even as the index has fought to overcome it's 200 day moving average which has been in a downtrend for at least a year. Ordinarily one would like to see volume picking up and a pop in volume as the index "busts out". We are definitely not seeing that with the Dow today. Notice the indicator at the bottom of the chart, it is a Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator and it is pinned in "overbought" territory. Generally this would be looked at as a negative factor, meaning a stock or index has run too far too fast. In the case of the current market however, as much as this holds true, it is also a longer-term positive, that after being virtually unable to even become overbought for the last year, that the index could get and stay so overbought. So when I wrote about a potential breakout in the Dow last week heralding a new "bull market", I looked at this negative indicator as a more minor factor.

The fact that the Dow was poised to go "topside" and confirm the breakouts in the other indexes, but has barely been able to claw out a close above the 200 day moving average, is a warning that this rally, which has already been one of the most powerful in history, is quite long in the tooth. If it fails to regain its legs soon, it could be a long and painful summer. It could also be technically described as a bear market rally, perhaps the mother of all bear market rallies.



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