It was a tough week on Wall Street; The benchmark S&P 500 (SPX) negated its latest breakout (above), turned negative for the week and year, and closed just near its 50 dma line. In the past 6 weeks, from the Feb 5th low of 1737, the S&P 500 jumped a very impressive 8.4% and is now ~2% below its record high. Remember, in a normal (non QE) world, a 10% move for the entire year would be considered healthy. So +8.4% in 6 weeks is very powerful and speaks to how strong the bulls are right now. A little pullback should be welcomed, providing that it is shallow in size (% decline) an scope (days/weeks, not months). As we have been saying for weeks, “markets do not go straight up so be careful chasing stocks that have already had big moves up here.  A better approach that has worked very well for us over the years is to buy weakness in uptrends, not just strength. In the short term, the market is clearly getting extended and a light volume pullback into the 50 dma line would do wonders to shake out the late-longs. Meanwhile, the intermediate and long term outlook remains very strong.” Trade accordingly.

Stocks opened lower on Monday after China released disappointing trade figures for February. China said its trade balance tanked from a surplus to a deficit of $22.98 billion (expected surplus of $14.50 billion). Exports plunged by -18.1% (expected +6.8%) which bodes poorly for the global economy. The report showed that imports rose by 10.1% (consensus +8.0%) which suggests their internal demand remains firm. Plunging exports spooked investors because China’s export data is used as a proxy for global economy growth. Some analysts tried to dismiss the big miss due to the Lunar New Year, which took place at the start of the month. I don’t buy it because that should disrupt both sides of the equation, not just one.

Stocks opened higher on Thursday but quickly turned lower as fear spread regarding a potential war with Russia and the health of China’s economy. A report suggest that Russia fired on a Ukraine jet which spooked investors. In the US, the Commerce Department said retail sales rose by +0.3% in February after a -0.6% decline in January. January’s loss was bigger than initially reported. Both reports were largely written off due to the awful weather across much of the nation. Stocks fell on Friday as investors reduced their risk ahead of Sunday’s vote in Ukraine. As of Friday’s close, it was a foregone conclusion that the Republic of Crimea (the hot spot in Ukraine) will secede. The first question is whether or not they will join mother Russia (most likely outcome as of Friday’s close) or decide to become fully autonomous? The second question: what will the global response be (from both the International Community and Russia)? As always, stay tuned.