"The next couple of weeks are going to be important. The dollar should form a short term daily cycle low sometime in the next few days. If the bounce out of that low is weak, rolls over quickly, and breaches that pivot then the odds are going to be high that May did not mark the final three-year low. If the dollar still has one more leg down then the deflationary scenario is going to be put on hold while that runs it's course. "
“What Happened to the Jobs? By John Mauldin | July 8, 2011”
“The economy will already be slowing down. A recession in 2012 is a real possibility if there is any type of shock coming from Europe, and what will happen there is anyone’s guess. I think most European leaders are basing their thinking more on hope than on reality. When Greece defaults there will be a domino effect; you can count on it. And you could actually see a banking crisis before we get actual sovereign defaults.
Gentle reader, you need to understand that the market does not get it. Neither in Europe nor in the US. When someone says the market has already priced in a default, go back and ask them how well the market priced in a crisis in the spring of 2008. The market doesn’t know jack.
I got a lot of internet buzz from a throwaway line in an interview on CNBC in London. I said that if the market knew what Bernanke and the leadership of the central banks talked about after their third glass of wine, the market would wet its pants. That is not to suggest I don’t think Bernanke or Trichet can hold their liquor. It means that they get the problem more than they let on in public and are simply trying to stem as much damage as they can.
Banking crises are followed by credit crises by 2-3 years. It is getting close to that time. We need 3-3.5% GDP growth in the US to really make a dent in jobs. We are not going to get it. There is nothing we can do other than Muddle Through as best we can. Prepare accordingly.”
There's a good chance that short-term trading positions recently established in anticipation of QE3 will backfire. The reason is that before the Fed starts a new round of aggressive money-pumping, it will need the cover provided by much lower prices for equities and commodities and a much weaker economy. The cover provided by a 'deflation scare', that is. This means that some of the things that traders are buying in anticipation of QE3 will have to drop substantially in price to make QE3 politically feasible.
If QE3 were to be introduced without the aforementioned cover then the Fed would quickly find itself in 'hot water'. The initial market reaction to the program would probably involve a sharp decline in the T-Bond and a strong rise in the S&P500 Index, but rising inflation expectations and interest rates would soon put an end to the stock market rally. Furthermore, in response to rising inflation expectations gold would start to make a beeline for $2000. In other words, introducing QE3 without the appropriate cover would result in all the negatives of QE2 with none of the perceived positives.”
“The Volatility Index has hit new highs since the March pullback and the momentum in volatility is currently still accelerating to the upside. Usually the pullback doesn't exhaust itself until the momentum in volatility burns itself out which is nicely shown by watching the TRIX momentum indicator.
Watching the volatility index will probably provide clues as to when this pullback will end. Looking past the pullback, it's critical that the financials, brokers, and semis don't continue and make new lows for the health of the overall market. The eventual breakout from this trading range of 2011, whether to the upside or downside, will depend on the movements of individual sectors and especially the more influential ones.”
“By the way, I am not an EW charty, so I have no clue as to whether there are other qualifications in play that need to validate this 5 wave up scenario.”
"Prior to today's ninth major selloff of this cyclical stock bull, the average VXO peak within a couple trading days of the SPX's bottoms was 28.3. With the exception of the only other full-blown correction last summer, this level of fear was sufficient to temporarily bleed off greed and rebalance sentiment. But this week on Monday's brutal 6.7% SPX plunge, its biggest down day since December 2008 in the heart of the stock panic, the definitive VXO fear gauge skyrocketed 50% higher to close at 49.4!
The more extreme fear gets, the more compelling the buy signal. After every other pullback and correction of this entire bull, the SPX rallied sharply as you can see in this chart. And all of these other fear spikes except the other correction's were relatively minor. A 28ish VXO is nothing compared to a 50ish one, the fear isn't even in the same league. A 50ish VXO is inarguably, absolutely extreme fear!"
“In this regard and during the latest Fed FOMC meeting, three Fed Presidents voted against the policy of extending ZIRP through 2013. This was the most dissenting voters since 1992.
What this tells us is that the days of easy free money from the Fed are over. Remember, this wasn't three dissenting votes against QE3, this was three dissenting votes against keeping interest rates low. ”
“Yes, stock panics and crashes like 2008's and 1987's see fear soar to a whole new level and shatter the VXO 50 ceiling shown above. But these events are exceedingly rare, and only happen at very specific times in the bull-bear cycles. They are essentially once-in-a-generation fear super-spikes. In normal market conditions that aren't panics and crashes, 99%+ of the time, VXO 50ish is fear's absolute ceiling.”
“But if the S&P can somehow miraculously rally and close above 1,213 by the end of August, it will erase the breach of the line and the bull will regain control.”
“High-velocity selloffs like we saw in early August 2011 are not seen early in bear markets. The reason is simple, stock-bear psychology. Sharp selloffs spark extreme fear, which scares speculators and investors alike into dumping stocks to rush their capital out of harm's way. But the mission of a bear market is to do the most damage possible. It accomplishes this by lulling traders into a sense of complacency for as long as possible. The longer that a bear can grind lower gradually in stealth mode without sparking fear prematurely, the more traders it will trap and maul.”
"Sentiment in recent individual investor surveys had only 25% of those polled bullish. Historically that average is 39% or higher.
The volatility index has been pegging the 43-45 window recently and historically markets have major reversals anywhere from 45-50, with rare cases of that index going over 50 without a major reversal
The German DAX index is carving out what looks like a bottom channel, and if it can hold the 5300 plus ranges, it could be a leading indicator of a US stock market run
Seasonally, markets tend to bottom in the September-October window with favorable patterns from November into March/April.
Historically, markets tend to correct hard with a "New Moon in Libra" which occurred last Tuesday, the same day the market peaked at 1196 and rolled over hard. They often bottom with the following Full moon, which is scheduled for October 11th.
Elliott Wave patterns I use indicate we are in the final 5th wave stage since the 1370 Bin Laden highs, with a gap in the SP 500 chart at 1088 from September 2010 still to fill. That gap happens to coincide as 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of the 2010 lows to the 2011 highs. It's also has a 50% Fibonacci correlation with the 1356 high to 1101 swing move this summer."