Tuesday was one of those days in the market where there was something for everyone.
The bears loved the action in Goldman Sachs (GS) . The bulls loved that their favorite ETF, Financial Select Sector Fund , didn't break $23 on the collapse in Goldman. Especially when you consider that the yield on the 10-year note fell hard again. So, you see? Something for everyone.
I am going to give XLF credit for holding, but I still believe the financials remain in the "too much love" category. I figure there will come a time when no one likes them and then we can have another look at them.
This brings me to the chart of the yield on the 10-year note. While I was looking for it to break down, I admit I did not think it would do so in a straight line. The measured target is still around 2%, but again it's hard for me to imagine it will do this in a straight line. The most important thing to ask is, if this yield does make its way to 2%, do you think the XLF can hold above $23?
Then there is Nasdaq, where there seems to be no selling in the index, but the number of stocks making new lows has exceeded those making new highs for three consecutive days. This is the longest such streak since before the election. I keep an indicator I call the Hi-Lo Indicator and you can see it has rolled over dramatically, yet the Nasdaq index sits there. With the exception of 2013, each time this indicator has rolled over, we have seen the index eventually follow suit.
I would also point out that the McClellan Summation Index for Nasdaq (using volume) continues to go down. So despite Nasdaq's oversold-ness (read yesterday's commentary), there are still plenty of issues underneath.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the very low put/call ratios. The total ratio was 65%, which is quite low. It was last in this area in mid-February and the S&P didn't care one bit as it promptly rallied 3%. The Russell, however, pretty much made its high for the year then. Prior to that, we saw the reading this low in mid-December and all the indexes corrected a bit.
But it was the index put/call ratio that captured my attention. It sunk to 55%. The last time it was under 60% was just about a year ago. The next day, the S&P was up but in the ensuing weeks it fell 4%, eventually making its low just after Brexit in June. Prior to that, it was under 60% in August 2015 just before that mini-crash.
So as you can see, there was something for everyone during Tuesday's trading. We're still not yet overbought, so let's see if we can rally more or if we opt to use up the oversold-ness going sideways.
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At the time of publication, Meisler had no positions in the stocks mentioned.