Daily Market Outlook (11/6/2009):
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Market Performance:


The broad market continued to grind higher with the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P 500 today gaining ground for a fifth consecutive session. Currently, the major indexes are fairly close to their October 2000 highs. In today's session, the NASDAQ 100 index climbed 0.56%, the S&P 500 rose 0.25%, and the Dow added 0.17%. The final weekly tallies are as follows: The Nasdaq 100 gained a solid 3.82% this week; the S&P 500 was up strongly as well, adding 3.21%; the Dow closed up 3.23%.

Today's volume output on the S&P 500 was 3,430 million shares. This volume production exceeds the index's average daily volume generated over the past three months by 18%.

Volume Analysis:
9:30 - 16:00: Over the first hour of today's session, there was some volatility on the NASDAQ 100; after that, the index settled down and lapsed into a consistent uptrend for the remainder of the day, closing green for a fifth consecutive time, up more than half a percent. Despite the early turbulent action, the index generated little excitement in terms of our volume analysis methodology - overall volume output was poor and there were no significant volume surges for the day (consult a five-day chart of the index for a comparative view). After opening with a gap down of some 12 points, the index rallied very sharply, surging to its session high at 10 o'clock. The index then immediately sold off almost as sharply as it had risen, sliding to its low of the day at 10:45. During this strong pullback, we saw the session's strongest production of bearish volume (which appears in red on the SBV oscillator pane). Just minutes before the index bottomed for the day at 10:45, we noted the peaking of the session's largest bearish volume surge. The appearance of this volume spike signaled that the bears' efforts to drive the market any lower at this point were at risk of becoming exhausted. As you can see from a one-day chart of the index, this was indeed the case with momentum now shifting to the bulls. For the remainder of the session, the index then traded in a modest but very consistent uptrend that led to a fifth consecutive daily bullish close. With the exception of another bearish volume surge around 14:05, volume production continued to dwindle as the session wore on. Note how this bearish volume spike provided support for the rising market in the afternoon, re-invigorating the intraday upswing that was in progress. Although no noteworthy volume surges were seen for today's session, a five-day chart of the index shows that today's trading resulted in a small surplus of bullish volume (seen in green on the SBV oscillator pane).

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