As explained yesterday in my Market Direction Outlook, Thursday would be weak, certainly in the morning. I had hoped for a positive close but that didn’t happen. The S&P though is still above the important 2075 level and ready to tackle 2100 if there is just a bit more conviction from investors.
Oil has to stabilize for stocks to get moving a lot higher. Now below $44 a barrel, oil looks set to break below $43 on Friday. The last 8 trading sessions have seen oil decline 14 percent and US stockpiles rise 9.6 million barrels in just the last week! The world remains oversupplied with oil. A commodity once deemed as on the verge of “peaking”, is now in declining demand. This is continuing to hinder a major move higher by stocks.
Advance Decline for Mar 19 2015
Volume on Thursday declined by 800 million shares to 3.3 billion from Wednesday’s 4.1 billion. Up volume was just 25% of all trades while down volume dominated with 73% of all trades done lower. There were 128 new highs versus Wednesday’s 201 new highs. New 52 week lows though dip to just 34 from Wednesday’s 63. Overall the numbers are still pointing to stocks advancing.
Market Direction Closings For Mar 19 2015
The S&P closed at 2,089.27 down 10.23. The Dow closed at 17,959.03 down 117.16. The NASDAQ closed at 4,992.38 up 9.55.
Market Direction Outlook for Mar 19 2015
The rest of tonight’s Market Direction Outlook is for members only. The Market Direction Outlook is expanded tonight to encompass more than just the outlook for Friday. Tonight’s Market Direction Outlook studies where stocks are heading following the Fed’s comments yesterday.
This members only article is 2500 words in length and will require 10 pages if printed. USA Members can log in through this link to read tonight’s expanded Market Direction Outlook or they can sign in to the full USA members site here. Non-members can join FullyInformed USA here or read the benefits of being a member.
For Canada Members, tonight’s expanded Market Direction Outlook for the USA Markets is included with the TSX Market Direction Outlook.
For regular readers, the outlook for Friday is probable weakness, but the general bias is still higher for stock.
Stay FullyInformed With Email Updates
Market Direction Internal Links
Profiting From Understanding Market Direction (Articles Index)
Understanding Short-Term Signals
Market Direction Portfolio Trades (Members)