Technical Analysis: Market Falters

A potent pullback so far. Some of it is due to a sudden realization of the precariousness of the rebound in the economy and corporate earnings, but some of it also appears to be pre-9/11 jitters. A peaceful day tomorrow could alleviate some of the market’s difficulty here, but not all, and for another month we are in the weakest part of the year. The S&P (first chart below) fell back into its old trading range today, a negative if the index can’t retake 1015-1018. 1010 and 1000 are supports. The Nasdaq (second chart) broke an uptrend off the August lows today; that’s now resistance at 1840-1850. 1812-1814 is important support, and 1800 and 1780 are below that. The Dow (third chart) is right on support, and 9352-9361 is also important. Resistance is 9500 and 9610. The banks (fourth chart) must hold 853-855. On the plus side, the equity put-call ratio was pretty high at .83.