It was party time on Wall Street yesterday as both, the Dow and the S&P; 500, cleared their respective milestone hurdles of 12,000 and 1,300 by a solid margin.
Setting off the move past the resistance levels was a report indicating that U.S. manufacturing is showing the most strength since 2004. Helping matters was the fact that Egypt remained fairly quiet and that the traffic along the important key waterways was flowing normally.
This was encouraging news in that it alleviated fears that global economic activity won’t be interrupted—at least not for the time being. Markets around the world participated in yesterday’s rally and most asset classes were higher with the exception of bonds, which fell due to rising interest rates.
The S&P; 500 closed at 1,308, its best finish since June 25, 2008, just two days after our domestic sell signal effective June 23, 2008. In other words, if, as a buy and hold investor, your portfolio tracked the performance of the S&P; 500, you will now have almost reached the breakeven point…
The market will face some headwinds today in form of the ADP National Employment Index and a report on layoffs. Maybe yesterday’s euphoria can carry us through these numbers as well, should they not turn out to be as anticipated.