It’s a small dent, but US equities are attempting to get back some of Monday’s losses following optimistic news on trade between China and the US as well as positive earnings reports from Home Depot (HD) and Beazer (BZH).  Positive openings haven’t been the problem over the last several weeks, though.  It is what the market does from the opening to the closing bell that has been the problem!  On trade, there’s still absolutely nothing concrete, so it wouldn’t take much to reverse that optimism.  Housing-related stocks should get a boost from the HD and BZH news, and if they can’t, that may be an even bigger tell for the market.

Besides providing a good case for why the stock market should be closed on bond market holidays, yesterday’s equity market decline was disheartening from a technical perspective.  Last week, bulls were all excited that the S&P 500 traded back above its 200-DMA after a short time below that level.  With yesterday’s decline, the stint above the 200-DMA was even shorter.  It’s also never encouraging to see a major index fail to hold onto its already downward sloping 200-DMA.  If there’s one thing the bulls can hope for it is that yesterday’s drop is the beginning of a second shoulder in an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. It is Tuesday, so there’s no better time for a turnaround!

The chart of the Nasdaq isn’t any better, and you could make the case that it looks even worse.  Unlike the S&P 500, which rallied back last week to the same levels it hit in mid-October, the Nasdaq actually formed what now looks like a second lower high.  Unlike the correction earlier this year, the days of tech offering a port in the storm are done.

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