Technical Analysis Why We Can't Avoid a Recession By Richard Suttmeier - Street.com 8/29/2007 As the woes in the housing market worsen, the evidence builds that the U.S. economy will enter a recession. I'd even go so far as to say (and I have said) that a recession now appears unavoidable. I'll review the levels the major indices are likely to drop after I review my case for why they'll get there. The stock market decline off highs set in mid-July was the first leg of the 2007 bear market. The strong rebound off the Aug. 16 lows was fortified by the Federal Reserve's preopen Aug. 17 cut to the discount window rate, but rate cuts won't make bad loans solvent. My recession call is based on the stresses I see building in the banking system by looking under the hood of the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile. The spread of bad loans has gone past subprime. A recession now seems as unavoidable in 2008-2009 as in 1990-1991, the last time the U.S. economy experienced two quarters in a row of negative GDP growth. In the past 25 years, the FDIC has handled more than 1,600 bank failures. The vast majority occurred during the last real estate crunch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This cost the industry and taxpayers approximately $150 billion, according to the FDIC. Today, banks may be better capitalized, but the exposures are much worse. The explosion of nontraditional mortgage loans and the overuse of derivatives are likely to cost the industry and taxpayers much more. I have been reading about tabs totaling more than $1 trillion. When I make a bear market call, I don't use purely technical indicators, because they're backward-looking, to the tune of a 20% decline. I prefer to use a combination of fundamentals, technicals and levels from my proprietary models. And here they are. Stretched valuations. On May 23, eight of 11 market sectors were overvalued by more than 10%, according to ValuEngine, with four of these overvalued by more than 20%. That's the most extended I have ever seen measured on ValuEngine. And keep in mind that with stocks in this overextended condition, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is more than 20% above its 200-week simple moving average. At the beginning of the year, I showed the Dow's annual pivot at 12,492, with semiannual resistance at 13,375. With or without this strength, I show risk back to the annual pivot at 12,492, and risk to the 200-week simple moving average later in the year, which was at 10,462 and rising. Back in March, I incorrectly declared the death of the bull market with the February Dow high of 12,795.93. But credit spreads remained tight, fueling continued merger-and-acquisition and private-equity activities. On May 23, I made my second attempt at timing the top. On CNBC's "Closing Bell," I predicted that the S&P 500 would not surpass its March 24, 2000, high of 1552.92. When the Dow was at 14,000, I said that solid-gold earnings were built into the 14K Dow. When the Dow was around 13,500, I said that the next 1,000 points would be down not up, and after we got that 1,000 points down, I looked for the first bear market correction. We got it, helped by the Federal Reserve's cut. Positive technicals can win the short-term battles, but the bearish fundamentals win the war. Market | 28-Aug Price | YTD Gains | 2006 Close | 16-Aug Lows | 2007 Highs | % At YTD Lows | % High To Low | At the Highs | The Dow | 13,041.85 | 4.60% | 12,463.15 | 12,518.00 | 14,021.95 | 0.40% | -10.70% | 12.50% | S&P 500 | 1,432.36 | 1.00% | 1,418.30 | 1,371.60 | 1,555.83 | -3.30% | -11.80% | 9.70% | Nasdaq | 2,500.64 | 3.50% | 2,415.29 | 2,387.00 | 2,724.74 | -1.20% | -12.40% | 12.80% | Utilities | 477.01 | 4.40% | 456.77 | 460.68 | 537.12 | 0.90% | -14.20% | 17.60% | Transports | 4,732.98 | 3.80% | 4,560.20 | 4,486.60 | 5,487.05 | -1.60% | -18.20% | 20.30% | Russell 2000 | 769.75 | -2.90% | 792.75 | 738 | 862 | -6.90% | -14.40% | 8.70% | Semis (SOX) | 476.08 | 1.90% | 467.04 | 465.38 | 549.39 | -0.40% | -15.30% | 17.60% |
The above table shows that at the Aug. 16 lows, all year-to-date gains were wiped out. Only the Dow Industrials and Dow Utilities stayed fractionally positive. A pure technician could view the wipeout of the 20.3% gain in the Dow Transports as the sign of a bear market. Observe that the Russell 2000 Futures lagged on the upside and went to being 6.9% down on the year at the Aug. 16 low. It's worth noting here that the Dow Utilities, Dow Transports and Russell 2000 Futures currently are below their February highs. Let's review the indices individually. Dow: The first leg of the bear market on this index showed up as a decline of 10.7%, which came within 0.4% of the 2006 close and wiped out a year-to-date gain of 12.5%. Annual support is 12,492, with my annual pivot at 13,036, quarterly resistance at 13,472 and semiannual resistance at 13,925. The Dow |  | Source: Reuters |
S&P 500: The high was less than 3 points above the March 24, 2000, high. The bear market hit its first stride when this index fell by 11.8%, putting the S&P 500 negative by 3.3% for the year. My annual support is 1265.5. The quarterly pivot is 1466.5 and the annual pivot is 1482.3. Quarterly resistance is at 1525.1. Nasdaq: A 12.4% slide marked the first leg of the bear market for this index. The Nasdaq fell to being down 1.2% on the year, below my annual pivot at 2483. My quarterly pivot is 2584, with quarterly resistance at 2648. Dow Utilities: The first leg of the bear market was evidenced by a 14.2% drop, nearly wiping out a year-to-date gain of 17.6%. The Utilities index stayed just 0.9% above its 2006 close. Annual supports are 389.28 and 382.15, with quarterly and semiannual resistances at 507.22 and 535.32. Dow Transports: The first leg of the bear market hit with a clawing of 18.2%, wiping out a year-to-date gain of 20.3%, as Transports dipped into negative territory by 1.6% for the year. Annual support is 3739, with my quarterly resistance at 5138 and semiannual resistance at 5400. Dow Transports |  | Source: Reuters |
Russell 2000 Futures: Small-caps went 6.9% negative for the year on Aug. 16. Annual support is 665.76, with my annual pivot at 763.20 and quarterly resistance at 859.97. Philadelphia Semiconductor Index: The first leg of the bear market hit with a drop of 15.3%, wiping out a year-to-date gain of 17.6%, as the SOX dipped into negative territory by 0.4% for the year. I do not show a longer-term support. Quarterly resistances are 517.17 and 533.33. A weekly close below the 200-week simple moving average 463.12 would be a sign of the bear for semiconductors. |