9:00am (EST)
Sooner or later the bulls will win a Monday, right?
Someone must have sent our memos to the talking heads because a lot of them were reminding listeners that Monday’s have favored the bears in recent months. To be exact, if you include the first Tuesday of the month, the Dow has now traded lower on 16-out-of-17 sessions to start the week. More importantly, it was the blue-chips first negative FRIDAY/ Monday close in 6 weeks. The bulls had been on an 8-week Friday winning streak up until last week so this bears watching. Pun intended.
The Dow declined 20 points, or 1.5%, to finish at 13,559. The blue-chips fell to a low of 13,521 but still held 13,500. The high for the session was 13,601 but once again, the bulls failed to hold this level.
The S&P 500 slipped 3 points, or 0.2%, to settle at 1,457. The index traded down to 1,452 and was able to hold 1,450 before pushing a high of 1,460.72 which put the S&P briefly into positive territory about an hour before the close.
The Nasdaq fell 19 points, or 0.6%, to end at 3,160. The bears made another attempt at cracking 3,150 and they came close as 3,150.71 was the low.
The Russell 2000 gave back 4 points to close at 851.76 but kissed 849.32 before holding the 850 level. The S&P 500 Volatility Index ($VIX, 14.15, up .17) traded above 15 to 15.06 but stayed below this level by the close.
Futures are showing a higher start to today’s session: Dow (+32); S&P 500 (+4); Nasdaq (+10).
We have a lot to cover in our Members Area as there are a number of New Trades we are considering today. Stay on the lookout for possible Trade Alerts this morning shortly after the open if we take action.
