January 2008 Archives

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...

The market's held on to the Microsoft induced strength from the after-hours session last night. It looks like the Nasdaq will open just above its August lows while the S&P will open just below its August lows. It'll be interesting to see if those August levels do indeed flip from support to resistance.

On Today's Calendar:

• nothing

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounces continued during the regular session today and into the extended hours session thanks to MSFT. I added the 10-day moving averages to the charts tonight. You can see that they're pretty good trendlines for the month of January and that they're just overhead. Barring any big news overnight I think the indices will gap up right around those moving averages and the August lows for the S&P and Nasdaq. I expect sellers to put up a fight in that area.

Finally an upgrade due to the Russell 2000 being so close to its 10-day moving average.

Based on last night's analysis I thought there was a good chance that the short-term upward sloping trendlines would be broken today. They were broken but that turned out to be a head-fake. Buyers stepped right in and pushed the market almost back to the post-Fed reaction highs of yesterday afternoon. One of the best developments (if you're a bull) I saw in the charts tonight was the financials breaking their bearish trendline. The BKX is now solidly above its 50-day moving average but still has a down trending 200-day moving average to deal with at some point.

The Nasdaq has been range-bound for the last two weeks, if you erase last Tuesday & Wednesday -- which could be blamed on SocGen's debacle. It sure looks poised to breakout of the range but I don't know if it can do so if Google stays weak tomorrow.

The S&P closed above its August low for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We've got upgrades for the short term trends for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 today.

Selling is continuing from yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping we get an early bounce so I can get some entry points on some shorts.

On Today's Calendar:

• 9:45 -- Chicago PMI

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The market liked the Fed's interest rate cut for all of about 60 minutes today. Then it was back to reality as talk of S&P downgrading some $270 Billion in mortgage-backed securities made the rounds:

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said total losses for financial institutions from the unfolding mortgage market problems will eventually reach more than $265 billion.

The rating agency's comment came after it said it cut or may cut its ratings on $270 billion worth of U.S. mortgage-backed securities and put $264 billion of collateralized debt obligations on watch for a possible downgrade.

So the market fell right back to where it was before the rate cut. Oh well....

Today's action created bearish candlesticks all over the place. Right now there are 1,150 stocks in my universe of tradable stocks. My shooting star scan turned up 322 hits. Many of those aren't textbook shooting stars but most can still be classified as doji or spinning tops. We can just lump them all in as candlesticks with "topping tails (TT)".

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose above the August resistance late in the day but got pushed back down. Both are now in danger of breaking their short-term trendlines. Here are the charts:

There's not much to say right now. We've just got to wait & see how the market reacts to the Fed decision this afternoon.

On Today's Calendar:

• 2:15 -- FOMC Policy Statement

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Here are some charts that caught my eye when flipping through my scans:

Motorola-Inc.-(MOT)

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) -- This would be a counter-trend trade, which isn't my thing.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- Consumer Confidence

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bulls turned early losses into 1-to-2 percent gains on the major indices today. Those gains have created some minor improvements on the trend table (see below). The one problem with today's rally was that volume dried up. This was one of the lightest volume days of the month.

Improvements inthe short term trends today

We're set for a pretty mild open despite the crushing some overseas market's have taken today, especially China (Shanghai). Unless some big news breaks, I'd be surprised to see a big move in our markets ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday.

On Today's Calendar:

• 10:00 -- New Home Sales

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

The bounce is going according to the textbook so far. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were rejected from their August lows today. That's a classic case of former support turning into resistance. Today's action created bearish engulfing candlestick patterns (and outside reversals) on the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ as well as many individual stocks. One small plus for the bulls is that volume decreased today. Follow-through on today's selling could be an issue as people jockey for position ahead of Wednesday's Fed meeting.

Everything is back to down again...