Stocks Are on The Rise, But Remain Cautious

Last week, I was wary about the market’s move up.  In fact, wary enough to suggest going short via the QID. Ugh -- that didn’t work, as the market continued its ascent.

Now, maybe I’m being stubborn, but instead of becoming more bullish, I’m about where I was last week: still wary!  In fact, I’ll devote today’s column to just the indices as I couldn’t find one thing I wanted to buy.

Now before I go all bearish, I’ll start with some mildly good news: if you look at the Dow chart below, it probably has moved sideways enough for any breakout above resistance to avoid the “overbought” trap.  In other words, a breakout now on the Dow might have a chance of holding.

The S&P kind of falls into the middle. It’s moved sideways a bit at resistance, and if it broke out, I’d be bullish.  Just something in it – call it my sixth sense – that has me hesitant.

As for the Nasdaq (and here I’ll use the QQQ as proxy) this chart has gone completely bonkers and is a definite “avoid” in my book.

So, in net where do I stand?  Tech stocks are probably pricey at this point.  But, if the Dow and S&P stuff can move sideways just a bit more before breaking out, we just may get that anticipated fourth quarter rally.