Building permits and housing starts failed to inspire the market, but the selling didn't start ramping until the FOMC meeting minutes. Volume for much of the day was running lower than Tuesday's level as traders were waiting on the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes. Upon the release it was clear from the release the Central Bank is at least talking about ending the or at least curbing the latest round of asset buying. The minutes also revealed the Fed is a bit more optimistic about the state of the economy and therefore could reduce the size of their purchases. Sellers didn't need much more than that to take stocks below last week's low in heavy trade. One day doesn't make a trend, but today we finally saw some heavy volume selling. Our uptrend is on shaky ground and it is a prudent move to make sure you have your exit strategy in place.
AAPL continues to weigh on the overall market, but today sellers took to the entire market. GOOG dropped back below $800. Crude oil fell more than two points with Gold and Silver falling hard on the day. One day doesn't make a trend, but it is these types of days where you stand up and take notice. When indexes and leading stocks get hit hard you have to take notice and adjust. Know where your exits are and make sure you stick to your plan.
It will be important for this market to find its footing to keep the uptrend alive. Selling in bunches like today are a big red flag for the market. Your stocks will let you know what is going on and if you are noticing your stocks are quickly hitting your exits it is a good sign the broader market is about to head lower. We are in caution mode and will need to see this market shake off today's selling.
Know your exits!
Short-term Trends:
No changes for today, but any further selling we are likely to see SPY, IWM, and QQQ flip to downtrends.
TICKERST TRENDTREND CHANGEDATECLOSE%
SPYUPTRENDNO CHANGE2/20/2013151.34-1.25%
IWMUPTRENDNO CHANGE2/20/201390.83-1.86%
QQQUPTRENDNO CHANGE2/20/201367.19-1.54%
USODOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/201334.17-2.26%
UNGDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/201318.320.11%
GLDDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/2013151.44-2.50%
SLVDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/201327.59-2.99%
DBCUPTRENDNO CHANGE2/20/201327.92-1.13%
FXYDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/2013104.820.05%
FXEDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/2013131.68-0.85%
TLTDOWNTREND NO CHANGE2/20/2013115.920.30%
Disclosure: I am long GLL.