The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) opened this week at 3200 and continued to trade higher through Wednesday but then the long recovery came to a stop. SPX closed today at 3041, for a 5% decline just this week. Thursday’s trading broke the 200-day moving average (dma) but the index opened higher today and closed well above the 200 dma. Trading volume for the S&P 500 companies has been choppy for the last two weeks, running along below and just above the 50-day moving average (dma).
VIX, the volatility index for the S&P 500 options, had declined since the peak of the correction, and reached 24.5% last Friday, matching lows from late February. VIX moved higher this week and spiked as high as 43% on Thursday. VIX closed today at 36.1%, reminding us that this remains a nervous, and therefore dangerous, market.
IWM, the ETF based on the Russell 2000 group of companies, closed at 138.27, up 3.24 points today, but closed the week with a 9.2% decline. As usual, the small to mid-cap stocks in the Russell 2000 trade lower faster whenever traders get spooked.
The NASDAQ Composite index tumbled Wednesday and gapped open lower Thursday for a large loss. NASDAQ closed at 9589, up 96 points today, but lost 2.4% for the week. NASDAQ continues its role as the broad market leader, recovering its
pre-correction high this week, but taking less of a hit as the market sold off over the past two days.
This was an interesting week in this trip back from the correction. The first surprise is how NASDAQ actually tacked on gains over the pre-correction highs. How does that make any economic sense? Even today’s close remains just below the previous highs.
I don’t think anyone has sufficient data to even roughly estimate where the market averages should settle after this man-made recession. So all we can do is trade what we see and have a bias toward the high-tech stocks that seem to have some immunity to the market damage. This week’s trading reminded us that this market will continue to be quite volatile. We closed our INTC trade this week for a 63% gain, but our AMD position took a hit with the market decline on Thursday.
Remain vigilant. Be prepared to go to cash quickly if necessary. Stay calm and remain disciplined.