Technical Speculator ...your financial market review

April 09, 2018: A long upward path

As the U.S. and China "trade war" continues to escalate, the current market commentary often leans toward the negative and a possible market top.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

Thought the rhetoric clearly causes concern with investors, major U.S. market indexes continue to forge higher and have posted new all-time levels in Q1.  

In fact, if viewed from the start of the bull market in 2009, it is hard to picture a more disciplined advance.

Both the NYSE and the S&P 500 have held a controlled rise over the past nine years with little or no deviations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has actually broken out of the secular channel in 2017,  building on the upward trend.

The positive movement is not isolated to just North America, world markets are also experiencing the same steady rise.

The Dow Jones Global Index (DJW) is also keeping pace with its U.S. counterparts. The world index posted a new all-time high in late January.

Bottom line: Regardless of the short-term sword rattling, most markets continue to advance on a positive upward path.   And though it is easy to become distracted by the day-to-day or even week-to-week noise, investors should step back occasionally and view the markets from a  longer term perspective.