Stocks closed out the final week of May on a softer note with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (chart) falling 221.34 points, the Nasdaq (chart) lost 19.33 points, the S&P 500 (chart) -18.67 points and the small-cap Russell 2000 (chart) closed the week lower by 5.69 points. Considering the record closing highs that have been set over the past month or so, its no surprise that equities took a bit of a breather.
Now that we are in the month of June, let’s see if this seemingly temporary pause turns into something more meaningful. The month of June historically is a unfavorable month for stocks and this year may be no different. In fact, in this trading week headline risks are abound. Internationally speaking, without a doubt Greece’s debt talks will continue to grab the attention of investors this week as well as the ECB’s central bank meeting. Here in the states, traders will continue to pay attention to the continuing strength of our dollar as well as May’s jobs report at the end of the week. As you can see there are plenty of catalysts that could become market moving events.
Technically speaking, the aforementioned indexes are finding support at their respective 50-day moving averages and none of these indices are in overbought or oversold territory according to the relative strength index (RSI). One technical point I do want to make is when stocks were setting records earlier in May, the volumes associated with those records were on the lighter side. As mentioned in my previous blog, my preference would of been to see these records being set with much stronger volume.
Have a great week and good luck in the month of June 🙂
~George