Prior to this week, we had seen just one day in the past three months with less than 70% of world markets above their 50-day averages. We’ve now had two days in a row with this indicator of global market strength in the yellow zone.
Why It Matters: The strongest markets have the broadest participation and historically the S&P 500 hasn’t run into much trouble as long as at least 70% of world markets are above their 50-day averages. Risks intensify when this drops below 40%. We discussed this (and other indicators of market stress) in our weekly Townhall as well as the Takeaways summary.
The Bottom Line is this: It’s not a red flag yet, but rally risks increase if fewer world markets are above their 50-day average and the dollar finding a bid after selling off in Q4 could challenge the strength we’ve seen around the world in recent months.
