The Market Pauses for a Day

On Wednesday, the market was weak off the open but was able to gain back some losses before a small sell off at the end of the day.  Market breadth was negative for most of the day. Volume was lighter, so the down day was not due to heavy selling by the institutions. 

The S&P 500 lost just -2 points (-0.11%) while the Nasdaq fell -11 points (-0.28%). The Dow gave up -42 points (-0.25%). Advancers beat out decliners by a small margin, but down volume beat up volume by just 9-to-8. Today was a narrow range day; the S&P had a range of only 7 points (normal days have a range of 10-15 points).

After the market advanced yesterday to end the correction, a low-volume down day can be expected. The fact that the market did not sell off heavy is a positive sign, as bull traps tend to occur after price makes new highs as the S&P did yesterday.