S&P 500’s Candlestick Chart Signals Gains: Technical Analysis
2010-05-19 13:06:44.66 GMT
By Lu Wang
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest drop in U.S. stocks since the bull market began may be over after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index generated a chart similar to the one that signaled the market’s last bottom, according to Auerbach Grayson & Co.
The benchmark formed a hammer-shaped candlestick on May 17, trading 1.8 percent below its opening price before rallying later in the day to close near the day’s initial level. At the same time, the body of the candlestick was located within the range of the previous day’s, generating a bullish harami -- a reversal during a downtrend -- for the first time since February.
Such pattern suggests the S&P 500 may exceed this year’s intraday high of 1,219.8, said Richard Ross, global technical strategist at Auerbach. The benchmark has lost as much as 8.7 percent on a closing basis from this year’s peak on concern that the government-debt crisis in Europe is destabilizing the euro currency.
"We’re in a process of putting in that bottom," Ross said in an interview. "When it occurs at key support amidst a backdrop of fear, uncertainty and doubt, its predictive powers are punctuated."
Last time the S&P 500’s candlestick chart produced such a bullish reversal signal on Feb. 5, the benchmark bottomed in the next session and gained 15 percent to its 2010 high on April 23.
"We’re in store for similar advance," Ross said.
He expects the S&P 500 to rise to 1,300 by the end of this year, which would be a 16 percent gain from the index’s close of 1,120.8 yesterday.
In technical analysis, investors and analysts study charts of trading patterns and prices to predict changes in a security, commodity, currency or index.
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--Editors: Joanna Ossinger, Stephen Kleege
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lwang8@bloomberg.net.
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