Market Summary

Looking at the table below it can be seen the 4W (four week) column is nearly completely green. The only ETFs that are red are oil and gas and we know from the pump that the price of gas and oil have declined recently. This table displays price performance over time with the best performers at the top sorted by the YTD (year to date) column. Comparing this market summary with last weeks and the ones before that shows that the green column is moving to the right. This indicates that a bottom was put in and we are seeing prices going up over time. What is interesting here is that the EEM (Emerging Markets ETF iShares) is up over 39% and the Russell 2000 ETF is up over 26% in the last four weeks! This indicates riskier assets are rising faster which is what you expect at a bottom.

As a side note please be aware that there may be a bubble forming in bonds as the Fed is buying them up to drive the interest rates down to stabilize the housing market. The 30 day T-Bill is paying just a penny and the 90 day T-Bill is paying a nickle. The 10 year Treasury is paying just about 2% while the 30 year Treasury is paying 2.7%. In the FOMC meeting this week the Fed announced it would reduce the Feds Funds rate to 0 to 0.25% range to stimulate the economy. I will be posting a bond performance table sometime soon and more information to follow.

While the market is rising I still consider this a short or intermediate term rally that will allow many investors a time to get out. Many of the markets are bouncing up against the 50 day moving average. Currently the S&P500 50 day moving average is 898. We should break above that level with the current Santa Claus rally. The volatility index has been falling and when markets move higher in the face of bad news it is always a good sign and we have had plenty of bad news lately. Click on table to enlarge.