Technical Analysis: Fear Rises, Volume Falls

On the plus side, fear, as measured by put volume, remains unusually high, a supportive factor for the market here. But today’s rally occurred on falling volume, so we’re not so sure that the Nasdaq (first chart below) is ready to break out of its multi-month trading range just yet. Critical support is 2032, and 2065 and 2100 are resistance. The Dow (second chart) has resistance at 10,825 and 10,868, and support is 10,775 and 10,725. The S&P (third chart) held critical 1195-1200 support again today — at this point, we’d like to see the index hold its October uptrend at 1200 — and resistance is 1210-1212 and 1215-1218.