Stocks Take a Step Back in Quiet Session

For the 9th Monday in a row the market closes lower on very light volume. After Thursday and Friday’s trading sessions today’s pullback is a welcomed sign and a very bullish one. The Russell 2000 led the decline with the NASDAQ not far behind with losses of .56% and .41% respectively. The key point here was volume did not accelerate with the selling and dried up on the day. Institutions were not dumping stock today and for now a good sign heading into a fun filled central bank week. Wednesday the Federal Reserve kicks off the news week with their rate announcement in the afternoon. Tuesday we have a few economic releases, but the focus will be on Wednesday and would expect another day similar to what we saw from the market today. I am not trying to predict what will happen tomorrow, but merely pointing out volatility kicks in after rate announcements. We’ll be focused on the price action of our stocks rather than guessing where we may go from here. Sentiment continues to be quite negative. AAII Bulls have dominated the survey has of late and II bulls continue to disappear. Any interesting poll came across CNBC today and one that asked if the current rally was going to continue. 71% of respondents thought it was going to be short-lived and we’d head lower. Mind you this is CNBC whose job is to pump stocks and it was quite astonishing their viewers are that bearish. Is it that the investing public is too bearish on this market? Time will tell and so will prices. Today was much of a do nothing day. A very boring day, but one that was a good step forward for our buy signal.