Weekend Wrap: Stocks Still Shaky; NYSE Composite Collapsed

Friday's split markets didn't offer much in the way of either relief or direction as stocks spent the majority of the week languishing around recent lows. Other than Tuesday's spectacular "all clear" melt-up, the week as a whole offered another indication that either a correction or the beginning of a bear market is already underway.

Without the huge upside surprise of Tuesday - a very suspicious event that occurred out of the blue without any obvious motivating factor - the major indices would have broken down through key supports. As it is, the S&P and NASDAQ are resting right on their 200-day moving averages, while the Dow is somewhere in between its 200 and 50-day MA.

The NASDAQ fell for the ninth time in 12 sessions, the S&P, dropped 10 of the last 12, but the clearest message is being delivered by the most overlooked and broadest index, the NYSE Composite, which has clearly crossed the Rubicon into a dark area of investor despair, already having crashed through its 200-day moving average a week ago and trading well below it since.

Professionals notice these kinds of things, while the general public is usually informed of cataclysmic events after the fact. Closer inspection of the Composite reveals that not only is it down about three percent for the year, but it has spent the majority of 2018 in the red, having never fully recovered from February's free-fall like the other, more-favored indices.

Should anyone be worried? Of course. Worry is one of the great equalizing factors in markets. Anybody who fantasizes that stocks will go up without correction is fuzzy-headed. There is (or should be) a constant tiny voice in the back of one's head urging caution, conservation, and preservation. It's a natural instinct, as much a part of human nature as having two eyes. In some, the trait is over-developed, but for most, it's well-hidden, back behind the modern day facade of bliss and happiness.

This kind of media conditioning is nothing new, but it can be particularly dangerous to avoid asking hard questions when it comes to capital and investments. Thinking that "everything will be fine," or "the government will take care of it," only reinforces attitude hat somebody else has one's best interests in mind when the reality is more likely the complete opposite. In centuries past, financial welfare was more akin to warfare. People had to fight for everything in their lives. It is only in the past 100 years that "civilized" society has allowed the common man and woman to delegate factors of economic survival and prosperity to outsiders. The result has been positive for many, but it has also produced a sizable divergence: creating a small super-wealthy class that controls more financial assets than 90% of the population combined.

Thus, it the 10% or one-percenters who are currently moving the markets, as is normally the case. Ceding control over one's finances is a modern-day contrivance that has benefitted the rich more than the middle and lower classes, and they're going to move the markets in the ways that benefit themselves most. Whether or not that is beneficial to the general population is another question altogether.

Dow Jones Industrial Average October Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
10/1/18	26,651.21	+192.90	+192.90
10/2/18	26,773.94	+122.73	+315.63
10/3/18	26,828.39	+54.45	+370.08
10/4/18	26,627.48	-200.91	+169.17
10/5/18	26,447.05	-180.43	-11.26
10/8/18	26,486.78	+39.73	+28.47
10/9/18	26,430.57	-56.21	-27.74
10/10/18	25,598.74	-831.83	-859.57
10/11/18	25,052.83	-545.91	-1405.48
10/12/18	25,339.99	+287.16	-1118.32
10/15/18	25,250.55	-89.44	-1207.76
10/16/18	25,798.42	+547.87	-659.89
10/17/18	25,706.68	-91.74	-751.63
10/18/18	25,379.45	-327.23	-1078.86
10/19/18	25,444.34	+64.89	-1,013.97

At the Close, Friday, October 19, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 25,444.34, +64.89 (+0.26%)
NASDAQ: 7,449.03, -36.11 (-0.48%)
S&P 500: 2,767.78, -1.00 (-0.04%)
NYSE Composite: 12,457.27, +11.79 (+0.09%)

For the Week:
Dow: +104.35 (+0.41%)
NASDAQ: -47.87 (-0.64%)
S&P 500: +0.65 (+0.02%)
NYSE Composite: +17.85 (+0.14%)