Prices reversed direction, falling after yesterdays advance: it was the fifth down-after-an-up day this year. It follows the last two in early November, which in turn, came after two in late October. All told todays is the 20th such hiccup in 2012.
Could these pairs of contradictory price changes reflect conflicting market sentiment? A tug of war between bulls and bears that could result in a cap on prices?
In 2007, for example, when prices collapsed in October, there were 42 such pairs of down-after-an-up day. That count, though, is more than double 2012s. However, the previous market top in 2000, with only 22 yields an opposite view, letting in the possibility of a substantial decline.
As for tomorrow, the record shows only 170 closes when the DJIA, the NASDAQ, and the S&P500 declined two days in a row. These are outnumbered by the 215 days on which all three of these averages moved higher. The other 100 some days did not have uniform price changes, but closed with each index moving in opposite direction.
DJIA -.74 percent
NASDAQ -.33 percent
S&P500 -.76 percent