Stocks sold off meaningfully this past week amidst building uncertainty regarding Russia, among other things.
A top here would fit our speculated March/April window which is the end of March +/- 1 month (Chart 1). In that case, the sell-off is likely approaching the end of wave one down (Chart 2, red).
However, odds appear to favor one more upswing. In that case, new highs are expected to produce a unambiguous overthrow, particularly in the Dow. A deep rebound but no new highs would be interpreted as a failed terminal wave. Consider the following.
[1] The Dow failed to push above its 2013 high, while other benchmark indexes have been in their all-time-high territories for weeks. The possibility of the Dow catching up should not be dismissed prematurely.
[2] The proposed "timed top" in Chart 1 is still two weeks ahead. The possibility of new highs in a few weeks should not be dismissed prematurely.
[3] The current sell-off allows SP500 to retest is 50-day moving average which is around 1830. The MA50 offers potential support.
[4] Price patterns during the sell-off can offer support. While bearish interpretations of the sell-off are very much valid, particularly a five-wave decline off the orthodox high (Chart 2, red), the possibility that this past week's sell-off could be an ending wave rather than the initial leg down should not be dismissed prematurely. For example,
(1) The green count in Chart 2 shows a complex ABC correction in SP500 since its mid-February high. Wave A is a zigzag. Wave B is an upward flat. Wave C is a strongly declining ending wave.
(2) From SP500's all-time high in March, the subsequent decline can also be counted as a potential flat (Chart 3, green).
For the very near term, price actions outside large-caps, as well as some technical indicators, have produced some bullish divergence. Note that the mid-cap SP400 index and the small-cap Russell 2000 index did not suffer a lower low on Friday. In fact, both indexes were up on Friday.
