Tuesday Recap: A look inside the market

Possible Triple Top (tops nearly impossible to call)

In the early morning, rising bond yields, a downgrade in Ireland, weak data out of the UK, and rising unemployment in the Eurozone didn't effect the futures as they were up. The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending December 4 fell by 17,000 to 421K. The week’s total was 4K below the Reuters consensus for a reading of 425K. Continuing Claims for unemployment for the week ending November 27 were below consensus at 4.086M vs. expectations for 4.247M and last week’s revised (higher) 4.277M. Futures were pointing to a positive open.

Yesterday's session began with a two point gap higher but quickly moved up six points in the opening minutes. The high of the day was printed at 9:58 and then we saw the recent pattern continue, as sellers took the index down putting the low of the day on the chart just before lunchtime. But as its been happening over the past few days the bears couldn't get the market to close lower. We seem to be witnessing a dance where the bulls take two steps forward overnight, the bears push back a step early in the session but the bulls recover before the close. 


For the SPX Index there were 276 Advancers/163 Decliners. On the NYSE 3,134 issues were traded with 1,692 advancing issues and 1,355 retreating issues, a ratio of 1.25 to one advancing. There were 152 new highs and 25 new lows. The five day moving average of New Highs is 199 while the five day moving average of New Lows is 18 and the ten day moving average of Net Advancing is 90.

Advancing volume was higher at a ratio of 2.51 to one. The closing TRIN was 0.5 and the final tick was 1047. The NYSE Composite Index gained 0.41% today while the SPX gained 0.38%.

For the NYSE, relative to the previous 30 session average, volume was -4.09% below the average. Of the last 15 sessions 7 sessions ended with volume greater than the previous rolling 30 day average volume. Of the last 30 sessions, 20 sessions ended on a positive tick, 7 of last 10. For the SPX, the day's volume was 98.3% of the average daily volume for the last year. Volume was 106.5% of the last 10 day average and 100.7% of the previous day’s volume.

Market breadth was good and advancing volume was even better. New Highs was lower than the ten day average and New Lows exceeded the ten day average. The ten day average of Net Advancing has fallen to 90; this is a neutral zone value that suggests that the recent rally is either in the process of completion or that this is simply a pause to gather strength for another push higher.



Total tick for the day was -43,000 and the average tick for the day was -28. There were 30 ticks greater than 600 and 51 ticks more extreme than -600. There were no ticks greater than 1000 and no ticks more extreme than -1000. The tick action suggests institutional distribution.

Intraday volume recently has one distinctive feature: High volume at the open which dries up after the first hour. Checking the nightly breadth indicators they continue to show mixed set of data suggesting more choppy trade. The McClellan Oscillator finally peaked into positive territory today, but just barely. These small changes on the oscillator are often witnessed by a wide range session, but usually a down day.

In the precious metals there was quite a bit of volatility yesterday but nothing abnormal in terms of volume. Silver chart looks better than Gold and HUI but no by much. Were are in the consolidation phase in the metals and for SLV for the moment and the 27.34 level seems to be important it has held multiple times on the minute charts over the week. Gold is also hold above its 20dma but the Ma has turned down, some thing to keep an eye on, especially if it crosses below the 50dma, very bearish. A similar picture is seen in the HUI and with all metals the primary trend is still up.


Have a great day!

Long Metals, Uranium, TBT, RES, AIB and IRE