A weekly commentary on the financial markets with emphasis on technical as well as fundamental analysis

1. Markets started off the week with a scare as the market suffered its first 1%+ sell off for
2014 and the first weakness of any sort since October, 2013. I stated in last week's
commentary that I didn't see any weakness in stocks as my technical and sentiment
indicators were predicting higher highs in the coming weeks. As I watched the price
action on Monday it was totally different than the typical pattern of weakness we saw in
2013. As the S&P penetrated short term support lines there was hardly any pause and
the pressure to the downside was relentless although we did have a small bounce into the
close.
I did state that an exogenous shock could take the market by surprise and, in a sense, it
got one on Monday. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart stated in a speech to the
Rotary Club of America that he supported "similar tapering steps" as the one taken last
month by the FOMC (reducing asset purchases by 10 billion dollars). Almost as the words
left his mouth the market started its swoon right into the close of trading.
Obviously his remarks (which were not anything that anyone didn't already know) on top of
a very weak employment report the previous Friday were the catalysts for the sell off.
Here's a five minute chart of the S&P inclusive of Friday's (1/10) and Tuesday's (1/14)
price action:
(click on chart for larger image)
To continue reading go to this link: http://equitymaven.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-goldinterest-rateparadigm.html

2. Thank You!