Stock Indices

This article examines 5 fairly exciting things going on which, at the very least, could keep the U.S. economy from slumping, and enable equities to continue to climb.

Huge growth patterns in markets -- more commonly known as "bubbles" -- have a remarkable timing signature common to every single one of them - they all have lasted 64 or 65 months from initial growth to blow-off top.

Mark this day on your calendars. The Dow is at 16974, the S&P 500 is at 1982 and the NASDAQ is at 4549. From this day forward, we will be looking to see how the stock market performs without the monetary heroin that the Federal Reserve has been providing to it.

Right now the monthly chart of the S&P 500 Index (SPX) is crying out -- screaming, even -- for a 38.2% retracement to 1740. Here's why.

With two huge market declines in a the same decade, investors are constantly on edge waiting for the next crash, but we’re more likely to see cyclical, not secular, market drops for the simple fact that they happen more often. Here are the details.

No stock market crash (a decline greater than 15%) has occurred over the past 30 years without the presence of a Hindenburg Omen except on one occasion (the mini-crash of July/August 2011). As such, without an official confirmed Hindenburg Omen, we are pretty safe from experiencing a major stock market correction. On the other hand, if we have an official Hindenburg Omen, then a critical set of market conditions necessary for a stock market crash exists. As of September 19th, 2014, we have such a condition in the market...

I have seen the light. I have seen the error of my ways. At long last, I understand. This stock market is a great investment. Stocks are just going to keep going up and up and up and up. Anyone who doesn’t buy now is a fool. I have learned to love the bull market. Yeah, sure!

If you’re in the business of fear-mongering, one of the go-to moves to try to scare investors is to predict that the markets are looking eerily similar to October of 1987. That being said, you could actually argue that the 1987 crash was a good thing for the markets. It knocked some of the wind out of its sails after more than doubling from 1982-1986 so it begs the question "Would a Repeat of the 1987 Crash Really Be That Bad?".

The Russell 3000, a broad equity index representing 98% of the investable U.S. stock market, is up 9.3% for 2014 on a total-return basis...[but] the median total return for Russell 3000 constituents is just 1.5% reflecting the fact that small- and mid-cap stocks are under-performing... This current alarming deterioration in breadth, a term that refers to how much of the market is participating in the advance, begs the question: "Is the stock market sitting on a trap door?" This article looks at 2 trap door indicators that suggest that that might, indeed, be the case.

Some witless pollyannas will say the title of this article is inappropriate. Unfortunately, these hapless souls suffer from excessive greed, rampant euphoria and hyper-complacency. Furthermore, they are ignorant of stock market history and its immutable cycles where only magnitude and duration vary. They foolishly delude themselves into believing that the US Fed has “banned” bear markets and has discovered the “magic elixir” to kill all potential bears while they are still cubs or in hibernation.