Major averages could barely manage a bounce after gapping up at the open yesterday as they the S&P 500 staged an outside reversal on higher volume. The NASDAQ came close to a full outside reversal, but staged a massive reversal regardless. Oil and junk bonds continued their slide. The Russell 2000 is now more than 20% off its peak, or in bear market territory, as its divergence from the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite widens. Even though we are only two weeks into the new year, the market is down more than 11% so far this year.
Nevertheless, a short-lived bounce could materialize at any time so keep stops tight on any short positions. NFLX broke hard yesterday and is approaching its 200-day moving average, which would constitute a reasonable short-term downside price target, particularly with earnings due next Tuesday. TSLA has undercut the 202 low of mid-October as it approaches the 195 low of late August. Either could be viewed as a short-term downside price objective. AAPL remains within range of its 92 low of August 24th, which could serve as a reasonable downside target as well. So far it has been unable to regain the $100 Century Mark, which could serve as an upside trailing stop.
The Chinese' Shanghai Composite Index was up nearly 2% overnight. Indeed, China is due for a bounce but keep in mind downtrends as well as uptrends can last longer than one expects. With yesterday's weakness in the US markets, European stocks are down nearly 2% at the time of this writing. But Europe follows the lead of US stocks so should the US market stage a bounce, this would likely help European stocks recover some of their losses.