The Stock Market Fell On July 8, But Don’t Expect It To Last

Stocks had a pretty dull July 8. The market just fell at the open and traded sideways the rest of the day. I’m kind of happy about that, I just had a really off day. I did a series of changes to my services over the weekend, and while I got everything working at home correctly, the office was another story.

S&P 500 (SPY)

The S&P 500 finished July 8 lower by about 50 basis points at 2,975. The 3,000 mark continues to elude investors. Is it that important that we reach 3,000? Yes and no. Psychologically it does mean something, but in reality, it is just another number.

It seems possible that the S&P 500 can continue to trade sideways through July 10. That will be the day that index either breaks higher or lower. The trend favors a break higher, pushing the index over 3,000.

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Can the market continue to rally? It seems like the answer may be yes. Only 59% of stocks are trading above their 50-day moving average. That number peaked in February at nearly 90%. We can see it has also risen at higher levels in the past.

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50 day moving average

Micron (MU)

Micron had a strong day despite the semis having a weak day. I’m questioning myself on this one now. I had seen plenty of evidence to support MU falling. However, MU has held very nicely around $39, and one more day of action like this will likely make me throw in the towel and chalk it up as being wrong.

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Micron, mu

Amazon (AMZN)

Amazon is one stock heading in the right direction. AMZN is now less than 1% away from the $1,965 target I laid out about a month ago. A rise above $1,965 sets up that re-test of the all-time highs.

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amazon, amzn