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Market Update

Market Direction Is Important –

Updated Chart of the S&P 500 and Secondary Signals

Of our Four secondary indicators under our MTI:

  1. Relative Strength Index (RSI)-Negative

  2. Chaikin Money Flow (CMF)-Negative

  3. MACD- Negative

  4. Money Flow Index-MFI-Positive

More on the Market and the Economy:

Stocks rose on Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak, though on the second lowest volume so far this year, following comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Even with Friday’s gain, the S&P 500 posted a weekly loss of 2.2%, marking the steepest weekly decline in two months.

Source: dshort.com

This week, data will be released on consumer spending, construction spending, manufacturing, the trade deficit and the jobs report.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the San Francisco Fed on Friday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said she expects that “conditions may warrant an increase in the federal funds rate target sometime this year”, and stressed that policy makers “generally anticipate that a rather gradual rise in the federal funds rate will be appropriate over the next few years.” She also stated that after the first rate hike, officials won’t follow “any predetermined course of tightening”, and that “the actual path of policy will evolve as economic conditions evolve, and policy tightening could speed up, slow down, pause, or even reverse course depending on actual and expected developments in real activity and inflation”.

While the majority of US investors anticipate a rate hike, one-third expect rates to remain the same, according to Gallup. While 51% of investors think rates will go up “a little”, 5% think they will go up “a lot”. And despite hints from the Fed, 34% believe rates will remain the same.

According to a recent Pew Research survey, six out of ten Americans surveyed believe that “some wealthy people” don’t pay their fair share of income taxes. But according to preliminary IRS data, in 2013 people with gross adjusted income over $250,000 paid almost half (48.9%) of all individual income taxes even though they accounted for just 2.4% of returns filed.

In fiscal 2014, the US government collected almost $1.4 trillion in individual income taxes, making it the federal government’s largest source of revenue. But income tax rates in the US are lower than a number of other countries: according to the OECD, a single person with an average salary and no children will pay the highest taxes in Belgium at 42.8% of earnings.

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