I, for one, am glad to see this week is over. On the whole, it sucked for bears. Ever since June 14, the bulls have, more or less, been at the steering wheel. We've had some hopeful days now and then, but the sad fact of the matter is that we still get triple-digit push-ups like today on the most feeble of news.

I feel exactly like I did when I wrote this posting in May. Interestingly enough, my feelings of despair at that time precisely match the peak of the market. To the day! So maybe there's a little hope, eh?

There were a few bright points this week, like the nuking of some Insurance stocks. But more and more bulls are getting heartened by recent activity, and you can smell the stink from the media about how rosy everything is. Apparently a slowing economy is great news.

I see the comments section is more active than ever. I don't even want to walk into that bar. God knows what is going on.

The Dow Jones 30 is still - but just barely - in a safe place for bears. I've pointed out five levels. Exceeding each one will make things progressively worse (and if it goes above 5, I'm going to enter the exciting world of retail shoe sales). This is an extremely dangerous juncture.


The note on the chart for the $OEX speaks for itself.


Below is an intraday (minute by minute) chart of the $SPX. It has obediently stayed under the trendline. Now, that's all well and good, but given enough time, the S&P 500 go climb to 10,000 and still be below this line. But at least this slender wall is holding up.


Jeez, I hope next week is better than this one. I enjoyed early June a hell of a lot more than this.

It's approaching midnight here in Palo Alto. In less than six hours, they're going to report GDP numbers, and supposedly they will give the market a reason to go either up or down. Very few people will read this before those numbers are released, but I'm posting this new entry anyway.

Based on the charts I'm seeing, I'm predicting a down day, and I'm doing it without the benefit of those figures. So I'll either look like a jackass or a jeanyus. Either way, it'll start with "j".

The Dow Composite looks ready to get pushed back away from its resistance line. When will the bulls ever give up?


The Dow Jones 30 had its second doji in a rowing. Can you say spinning tops? I also have drawn another (smaller) Fibonacci retracement, this one spanning from the May top to the ~10,650 level we keep bouncing away from. Interestingly, today marked the 50% retracement point. Coincidence? I think not!


I haven't bothered putting up a NASDAQ chart in ages just because this poor index is so battered and bruised, it's hardly worth looking at. But we clearly see a steady progression of lower lows and lower highs. Which is the very definition of a (loving sigh) bear market.


The S&P has done a great job staying underneath the medium-term resistance line, and it seems to have run out of gas. It fell today in a lovely bearish engulfing pattern.


A few days ago, I mentioned the Transports were probably done selling off. Boy, was I wrong. This index has sold off harder than any of the other major indices in the past few days. It is approaching major, major support right now. If it cracks the trendline and Fib retracement, wow, I don't know where it's going (except down).


Have the Dow Utilities made a double top? This is the only index with strength over the past month, but it backed off without making a new high today.


Gold also seems to have turned 'round.


Well, I'm going to walk the dogs. See you in the a.m.

Our bull friends need to recognize that it's important not only to GET it up, but to KEEP it up. Delighted to see this fizzle away today. That bodes well.