Yeah, that's it—when volumes are as light as this traders just push their "easy button" and markets are propped. Bad news, good news or no news, it makes little difference when you're in control. So, who's in control? The usual suspects.
And, speaking of those, the
New York Magazine just put out a good and thorough read on Goldman Sachs (
GS ). Everyone is jumping on the pile now except Buffett, other shareholders and the bonus babies. No doubt they hope time will make it all go away and given past experience that is the likely outcome.
As indicated volume was light and breadth positive.
The McClellan Summation Index is reaching for its previous highs. Some believe this is a nonconfirmation with markets not near to new highs making current readings more doubtful.
Volume is light and bulls still are in control. Selling good, bad or indifferent news is not permitted. Further we're heading to the end of the month and tape painters will be active defending their positions. More news will be forthcoming tomorrow including the Redbook, more home sales data and Consumer Confidence. Durable Goods on Wednesday coupled with the Beige Book. Then it's Jobless Claims on Thursday and Friday's GDP data. All this data plus the end of the month takes us to August believe it or not.
Is this market like any in the past? The closest is 1974 but then there were major differences. As a pure chartist you just view the data but what's behind it all? So many things are different especially the players and instruments in markets. The Fed is more involved, the derivatives market has grown exponentially, trading costs have been whittled to nearly nothing, indexes have been revamped and new ones created, hedge funds and trading desks dominate markets with the latter not existing previously due to Glass-Steagall Act prohibitions and the former barely a blip on the radar, global investors were much less present as were global markets, mutual funds weren't much of a factor, computers didn't dominate trading and so forth. A lot has changed with many facets of markets. Drawing comparisons is a tall challenge.