Market Update

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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)-Positive

2. Chaikin Money Flow (CMF)-Positive

3. MACD- Negative

4. Money Flow Index-MFI-Positive

More on the Market and the Economy:

Stocks closed slightly lower on Friday as a retreat in oil prices weighed on the market. After closing on Thursday at the highest level since December, the S&P 500 gained 1.6% for the week.

Source: dshort.com

This week data will be released on housing starts, existing home sales and the Conference Board’s leading economic index.

Small business optimism fell to a two-year low in March with the NFIB optimism index slipping to 92.6, as business owners cited the economy and the political climate as reasons why they do not believe that now is a good time to expand.

Six of the index’s ten components declined:

Inflation ticked up in March on higher gas prices, with the consumer price index rising .1%. Energy prices increased .9%, while food prices slipped .2%.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model forecast for first quarter growth increased to .3% following the release of retail sales data.

The Fed’s Beige book reported that economic growth is “modest to moderate”, while wages increased in all but one of the Fed’s twelve districts.

Foreclosure filings fell in the first quarter to the lowest level in over nine years, slipping 4% to 289,116 filings to mark the lowest since 2006. According to RealtyTrac, “Despite a seasonal bump higher in March, foreclosure activity in most markets continues to trend lower and back toward more healthy, stable levels. More than one-third of the 216 local markets we analyzed were below their pre-recession foreclosure activity averages in the first quarter, and we would expect a growing number of markets to move below that milestone the rest of this year — while the number of markets with a lingering low-grade fever of foreclosure activity continues to shrink.”