Stocks Take A Break, All Major Indices In Red

The S&P just set a record as the longest bull market in US history, the Dow has been on a tear and the Dow Transportation Index just set a new all-time high two days ago, so, it's perfectly natural for stocks to take a breather here.

It is, after all, the 23rd of August, the proverbial dog days of summer. Plenty of people needed to take a break, look things over, calm down, have another mai tai by the pool and relax. Markets have been running at breakneck speed thanks to the Trump hate, tariffs, emerging market slide, Turkey's currency crisis, Italy's break away government, et. al.

Thursday's trading differed from previous session in that all four of the major indices finished lower. Lately, the pattern has been for split markets, with the Dow and NASDAQ moving in opposite directions. Though the losses were not significant, the fact that the direction was similar may signal something more ominous.

Of course, the way markets have been consistently, over time, moving to higher ground, going short here would seem to be a rather risky proposition.

Dow Jones Industrial Average August Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
8/1/18	25,333.82	-81.37	-81.37
8/2/18	25,326.16	-7.66	-89.03
8/3/18	25,462.58	+136.42	+55.05
8/6/18	25,502.18	+39.60	+94.65
8/7/18	25,628.91	+126.73	+221.38
8/8/18	25,583.75	-45.16	+176.22
8/9/18	25,509.23	-74.52	+101.70
8/10/18	25,313.14	-196.09	-94.39
8/13/18	25,187.70	-125.44	-219.83
8/14/18	25,299.92	+112.22	-107.61
8/15/18	25,162.41	-137.51	-245.12
8/16/18	25,558.73	+396.32	+151.20
8/17/18	25,669.32	+110.59	+261.79
8/20/18	25,758.69	+89.37	+351.16
8/21/18	25,822.29	+63.60	+414.76
8/22/18	25,733.60	-88.69	+326.07
8/22/18	25,656.98	-76.62	+249.45

At the Close, Thursday, August 23, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 25,656.98, -76.62 (-0.30%)
NASDAQ: 7,878.46, -10.64 (-0.13%)
S&P 500: 2,856.98, -4.84 (-0.17%)
NYSE Composite: 12,933.46, -57.05 (-0.44%)