September is famously the weakest month of the year for equities. It sure acted like that during the first trading week, falling sharply after Labor Day in one of the worst weeks for equities in a long while. That didn’t last, and some of the more annoyingly robust items are shown below.
First, we have the Dow Industrials fund (colloquially referred to as the “diamonds”) which is effectively at lifetime highs. Again.
Ever since the Halloween bottom, worldwide equities have teased bears just twice: once, during the first half of April, and second, during the second half of July. With these rare exceptions, the market has been stomping higher, still neatly confined within this ascending wedge.
The biggest fund of all, the SPY, is within about a single percent of its own lifetime high. The only tiny sliver of hope the bears have here is that, since its lifetime peak in mid-July, the two subsequent peaks have been lower highs. Even a slightly strong Monday could wreck that fact.
The biggest jaw-dropped of all has got to be the Dow 15 Utilities which, following its diamond pattern, completely defied convention and went on one of the strongest and longest rallies it has ever experienced, ostensibly goosed by the AI craze, since all those pricey Nvidia chips needs lots and lots of expensive electricity to power them. It’s unhinged at this point.
