A major reversal flushed the markets to the negative side today after a massive gap and go early in the day.  Solid economic news at 8:30am ET on Jobless Claims and the third revision on GDP and even better news at 9:45am ET on Chicago PMI were the key catalysts to the surge early.  However, that was wiped away quickly.  The markets are now sharply off their highs.

There were many signals today that a reversal could take place. First, the markets were hitting a pivot top going back to the highs of 2007, connected to the highs from 2010. This line can be seen on the weekly chart below. Truly an amazing trend line of resistance. Second, major stocks that have lead the market higher were hovering flat to lower even when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100 points on the day.  The weakness was noted in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).  These stocks have been the strongest in the last month and were signaling a problem with the initial gap higher and surge.  Sure enough, their weakness was a leading indicator for the reversal in the markets.

This reversal may be key, though must be taken carefully until the markets close. At that time, hardcore analysis will be done in the Research Center to see if this sell off is more than just a one day event. 

Gareth Soloway
Chief Market Strategist
www.InTheMoneyStocks.com

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