Market Direction Is Important –
Updated Chart of the S&P 500 and Secondary Signals
Of our Four secondary indicators under our MTI:
Relative Strength Index (RSI)-Positive
Chaikin Money Flow (CMF)-Negative
MACD- Positive
Money Flow Index-MFI-Positive
More on the Market and the Economy:
The market started out last week on a positive note, with the S&P 500 logging it’s 53rd record close on Monday…and wrapping up 2014 with an average of one record close per week (the index also ended the year without closing down for more than three days in a row… for the first time since 1928).
A 1.03% drop on Wednesday left the index with a .4% loss for the month of December and an increase of 11.39% for the year – its third straight yearly gain.
Source: dshort.com
2015 started out with a flat finish, with the S&P 500 down slightly on Friday to end the week with a 1.5% decline.
Source: dshort.com
Gold was unable to break free of its long-term sell signal in 2014, and a 1.4% loss on the last trading day of the year kept the metal from almost breaking even, instead logging a 1.5% annual decline.
Even with news that US commercial crude inventories declined by 1.8 million barrels in the week ending December 26th, oil prices slipped last Wednesday, and ended the year with a 46% drop.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped .857 percentage points over the course of 2014 – its biggest one-year decline since 2011.
This week the market will see data on factory orders, service sector growth, international trade, the jobs report and the minutes from the Fed’s FOMC meeting.
The 113th Congress managed, just barely, to avoid being labeled the “least productive Congress in modern history”, according to Pew Research. With the 113th Congress entering the history books, Pew did a tally of its legislative productivity. Thanks to a spurt of last minute work during the recent lame-duck session, the just-expired Congress managed to rank as second-least productive.
In total, the 113th Congress passed a total of 296 laws… 13 more than the 112th Congress. As it headed into the election-period recess, just 185 laws had been passed – but during the lame-duck session 111 laws were passed. In other words, over one-third of the work was done in the month following the November midterm elections.
The 41 million renter households in the US paid a collective $441 billion in rent in 2014, according to Zillow Research. A combination of rising rents and a growing renter population pushed costs up $20.6 billion, or 4.9%, from 2013. Over the past 14 years, rental costs have grown at twice the pace of income – the result of weak income growth and rental demand, according the Zillow.