Stock Market Bummer! Losing Streak Now at Four Days

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short writes: At one minute before the close, it looked like the S&P 500 would snap its three-day losing streak. But at the Friday 13th closing bell, the index had tipped into the red, increasing the streak to day four. And the 1.65% weekly decline gives us the second week of losses (although the previous one was a microscopic -0.04%). The Dow and Nasdaq fared a bit better, both closing with fractional Friday gains.

The day was light empty of economic news, except for this morning’s disinflationary Producer Price Index, which the market essentially ignored.

Here is a 15-minute look at the week, which includes Tuesday’s all-time closing high. Aside from Wednesday’s relatively dramatic selloff, the most noticeable feature is the relatively narrow trading range of the past two days. Are we seeing some consolidation before a traditional Christmas rally?

Volume on the SPY ETF, which is probably a better investor sentiment indicator than index volume, has fallen from its peak on Wednesday’s selloff.

A daily chart of the index itself shows the same volume trend.

The S&P 500 is now up 24.48% for 2013 and 1.83% below the all-time closing high of December 9.

For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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