Day Higher, But Downtrend Dominates

Stocks Have Been In a Downtrend for Past Month

Stocks Straight Down

This picture is worth a thousand words. Click on it to enlarge the graphic. This shows stocks beginning about 2:00 pm EST today. Straight down! This chart represents only about 1/2 of today's stock market losses. A similar chart for the first few hours of the day, and a brief middle-of-the-day rally, were depicted in one of my previous charts.

S&P 500 traders will vigorously defend the 800 level, and Dow traders, despite having lost the 8000 level, will try to defend last November's lows (around 7400 on the current futures contract).

Corn Confirms the Downtrend

Corn prices have confirmed a downtrend. I wouldn't have believed it was possible if I hadn't seen the charts. The price of corn has moved lower steadily since last week's gap downward on 7-7 to 7-8. This downtrend appears somewhat weak to me, but often, when prices tumble, they start out weak and gain momentum as prices begin to accelerate. After a strong uptrend, I am more likely to maintain very tight stops in the early phases of a new trend. However, such fluctuations in both directions are one of the characteristics that commodity futures are famous (infamous?) for.