Monday, March 17, 2008

Today's Markets

First, a word to the newcomers. I've gotten a great deal of blog traffic today. Usually, I only do one market update at the close. But because of today's unusual circumstances I thought periodic updates were warranted.

All that being said, today actually wasn't as big a deal as I would have thought. While the markets were down, they didn't drop as precipitously as they could have. That's probably the result of the Fed's increased discount window activity and the FOMC announcement tomorrow where the Fed is widely expected to drop rates. But the daily charts aren't very pretty and indicate we're still in technical trouble.



On the SPYs, notice there was an implied bottom probably caused by the Fed's actions. Also note we had two decent rallies and the market closed off its daily high.



With the QQQQs, notice we have a triangle consolidation at the end of the day.



On the IWMs, notice that prices formed a nice channel. This is the worse chart of the day, largely because prices closed a bit farther from the top than traders would like.

However, the markets still stand on the edge of a precipice from the daily chart perspective. On all of the charts that follow, notice how today's candle is uncomfortable close to yearly lows.