The broad stock market rallied a bit last week perhaps due to further delays in President Obama's decision to strike Syria and a growing opposition to doing so from many members of Congress as well as the American public. The UN's investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria may take at least another week, but Congress could vote as early as next week on whether or not it will back the president and his plans for a "limited" attack on the Assad regime. It seems unlikely that President Obama will act without the approval of Congress, and apparently he will also seek the approval of the American people through television interviews on Monday and a nationally televised address on Tuesday. If Congress does decide to support the president, it is not certain that Mr. Obama will wait for the completion of the UN investigation, but many are urging he do so. With this potential for further delay in military action, stock prices could rally some more next week. Technical and cycle analysis of the broad stock market is still presenting a mixed picture of bullish and bearish factors, but there are some short-term bullish signals supporting more rallying into next week. Some of the NASDAQ contract charts also flashed strong bullish momentum signals last Friday. Due to these factors and because the DOW and S&P 500 are now rising back to the point where we established our short positions a few weeks ago, I am going to unload them here with the idea of selling short again in a week or two should the DOW rally back towards 15,300 or higher and stall. I am still favoring a further correction in the broad stock market, but I feel it is best to step aside our short positions right now should any minor rally turn into something stronger. I am going to cover my short position in the broad stock market on Monday with the idea of selling short again in a week or two (assuming the market doesn't turn bullish).
Gold and silver both corrected down some more last week (which is what I wanted to see), and it is posssible they have already bottomed, so we will be looking to buy next week. It would be best if prices move a little lower into the middle or end of the week, but we may not get that setup and will possibly buy earlier. Stay tuned as we are approaching a very good buy spot in these metals. On the sidelines here and waiting to buy.
Because the price of crude oil can be strongly affected by the Syrian crisis, I am going to stay on the sidelines of this market for now as prices could be very volatile over the next few weeks. Short-term technical and cycle analyses are showing mixed bullish and bearish signals, so this market could either resume its correction down or break through the upper resistance at $112 and continue its bullish rally.