Market, Market on the Wall, Who is the Fairest of the All?

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

After the market gained in 7 of the 8 trading days following August 19, we have been met with 3 consecutive down days wiping out about half of our gain (about 5% at today’s close).

Flight to Where?

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

Last week’s rally gave us the first positive week in a month, and it continued today, with the S&P 500 gaining a robust +3% in one day and barreling through the theoretical ceiling of 1200, to close at 1210.

Banks are the Market's Ball-and-Chain

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

Q1 Earnings Season Begins

by David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

Tipping Point Deja Vu

by David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

One hesitates to put too much emphasis on any given week when discussing market trends, but this week could be the tipping point for the current market. Despite the S&P 500's 50-point gain last week on virtually no news at all, the fact remains that it is still more than 12% below the April 23rd high of 1217 and still has not broken out of the downward channel that began on April 26.

This week should be another interesting one, but it’s hard to say whether it can match the market’s behavior last week when it donned rose-colored glasses to view four days of mixed economic data.

It has been a week of sparse market-moving news, but what news there was continued to be generally supportive of the market’s slow growth recovery. Remarkably, volatility continues to be very low. Unlike the 6 to 10% gyrations (in both directions) of late 2008 and early 2009, we’ve seen very few days this year when the market has moved more than 1% in either direction.