On A Dime
Stock index futures continued their quick turnaround off
"soupy" bottoms, spike bottoms begun Wednesday. Microsoft and Sun Micro both beat earnings and the
one-two whallop these two market behemoths are packing appears to signify an
important change in psychology. Prior to Thursday, market psychology was
extremely bearish about earnings prospects. The combined good showing of these
two bellwethers could be what the market needs to put in a bottom.
Interestingly, this action comes on the 13th anniversary of the one of the
biggest declines in Wall Street history, October 19, 1987.
The S&Ps hinted of a reversal by lodging a Turtle Soup Plus One Buy
signal. Spooz are making good on the signal with a 2.5% gain. Additionally,
four up signals from the
Market
Bias Indicators Page, a high number, implied that stock index futures could
rally.
Comments before the Cato Institute by Fed Chairman
Greenspan are also egging-on the indexes while promoting a rally in December T-bonds
(
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PowerRating),
up 12/32 at 100 13/32. Greenspan said that investments in technology continue to
increase productivity and that the US economy hasn’t been too severely impacted
by rising oil prices, citing imbalances that may have occurred because of
household and dealer hoarding. Bonds are on the Momentum-5
List, and made good on an Off The Blocks
setup after gapping down and breakingout above Wednesday’s last hour high for a
10-tick gain.
Despite Greenspan’s comments about oil, energy prices are
rising and making steady headway out of (Cooper) 1-2-3-4 Pullback From Highs
setups. Tuesday the American Petroleum Institute announced that crude and
heating oil stockpiles were at their lowest levels in decades, down 37% from
last years levels in the case of heating oil just months from the season of
heaviest demand. Greenspan’s comments may, in fact, be having the effect of muting the bullish API report as winter fast approaches. The situation
in the Middle East remains volatile and there are multiple events that could
cause the jittery market to spike again including cold blasts, additional
terrorist attacks, oil worker strikes, slow progress in the Middle East peace
process, and additional OPEC output cutbacks.
In the meats, note that feeders and lives are both
setup at their handle-pivots of cup-and-handle patterns.