The stock market got smacked in late trading Wednesday after the ECB announcement on Greek debt. The selloff was not enough to erase the positives from the market’s gains early in the week. The quick reversal in crude oil did not help but don’t think the short covering rally is over yet. In Wednesday’s technical review Do Stocks Have Enough Juice to Breakout? I emphasized that a pullback would not be surprising but it was a higher weekly close that would shift the balance of evidence towards even higher stock prices. Of course, we have the monthly jobs report on Friday, and while a much weaker number will keep those on the short side happy, a surprisingly strong number will make them very nervous. The breakout in the NYSE A/D line does support the bullish case. The key weekly levels to watch are at $199.45 in the Spyder Trust (SPY) and 10,547 in the NYSE Composite. A weekly close well above these levels will improve the weekly technical outlook. For the S&P 500 futures, a close above 2062.50 is needed to signal an upside breakout. As I noted two weeks ago, the Barron’s roundtable panelists were not expecting strong market gains in 2015. They also provide a list of their favorite stock picks for the year ahead. Now I have often pointed out that picking stocks to hold for the entire year is a fool-hardy exercise, especially for a technical analyst. Nevertheless, I do find their choices can provide good material for my watch list. Last year’s winner was Abby Joseph Cohen from Goldman Sachs whose picks last year were up 9%. This illustrates what a tough year it was for stock pickers.
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