Market Direction today was impacted by yesterday’s big gain and by today’s durable goods order which declined 5.7 percent. Economists laid the blame for the decline on a plunge in aircraft orders. No matter what the reason, the continued weakness in various economic indicators continues to point to less than stellar growth in the US economy. This means the likelihood of interest rates rising is nil at this point and the chance the Fed will keep an accommodative monetary policy, very high. Market direction was choppy and sideways all day. Last night’s market direction outlook was for weakness in the morning and then a push back in the afternoon as market direction fought its way higher. Part of this happened but not the push to close higher in the afternoon.
Market Direction News
Among the big news had to be the jump in gold miners including Barrick Gold stock (ABX) up over 7% and Goldcorp stock (GG) up 6 %. Meanwhile Procter and Gamble stock (PG) fell almost 6% and AT&T Stock was down 5%.
Market Direction and IWM ETF Russell 2000
The Russell 2000 moved up half a percent and closed back above the 50 day simple moving average (SMA).
S&P 500 Market Direction Chart for Apr 24 2013
You can see today’s action in the chart below. There was weakness in the morning and then by 1:00 PM the market tried to stage a rally. This had been the market direction outlook from yesterday. The problem though was the push higher could not hold and the market sold off ending pretty well where it had started.
Market Direction Closing For Apr 24 2013
The S&P 500 closed at 1,578.79 up just 0.01 point. The Dow closed at 14,676.30 down 43.16 points. The NASDAQ closed at 3269.65 up just 0.32 points.
Market Direction Technical Indicators At The Close of Apr 24 2013
Let’s take a moment now and review the market direction technical indicators at the close of Apr 24 2013 on the S&P 500 and view the market direction outlook for April 25 2013
For Momentum I am using the 10 period. Momentum is slightly negative but more neutral than anything.
For MACD Histogram I am using the Fast Points set at 13, Slow Points at 26 and Smoothing at 9. MACD (Moving Averages Convergence / Divergence) issued a sell signal on Monday April 15 and that signal is still active. MACD is continuing to move higher but is still negative.
The Ultimate Oscillator settings are Period 1 is 5, Period 2 is 10, Period 3 is 15, Factor 1 is 4, Factor 2 is 2 and Factor 3 is 1. These are not the default settings but are the settings I use with the S&P 500 chart set for 1 to 3 months.
The Ultimate Oscillator is higher again today marking the third day of positive movement.
Rate Of Change is set for a 21 period. Rate Of Change positive and down slightly from yesterday but staying positive is a good sign.
For the Slow Stochastic I use the K period of 14 and D period of 3. The Slow Stochastic has generated a buy signal and indicates the market direction is higher.
For the Fast Stochastic I use the K period of 20 and D period of 5. These are not default settings but settings I set for the 1 to 3 month S&P 500 chart when it is set for daily. The Fast Stochastic issued a buy signal and is indicating that tomorrow market direction will continue to climb.
Market Direction Outlook And Strategy for Apr 25 2013
The market direction n Wednesday didn’t have any follow through from Tuesday’s big up move. This is yet another sign of investor nervousness. The lack of conviction is keeping this market under wraps but at the same time investors are buying the little dips unwilling to let the market direction fall back much further.
The sideways action is probably going to continue again tomorrow but there is enough strength in the technical indicators that there should be some positive movement in market direction on Thursday. The Weekly Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims come out before the market opens. If they are higher, look for the market direction to move lower, but if they are down even slightly the market direction should push higher although weakness will be noticeable at some point or points in the day.
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