The stock market has settled down over the past couple of days and volume has fallen sharply since we saw huge volume earlier this month. Fortunately, not all that trading was to the downside as there were a few accumulation days. During a correction phase and many times near "a low," volume hits very high levels. When the market starts a new uptrend, volume must increase but will never reach the levels during the decline -- especially when the downtrend had at least a tinge of panic. We have witnessed what is dreadfully called "a death cross" for the S&P 500 (SPX), the Nasdaq, and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) -- but just barely. The S&P 400 had such a cross on April 3 and the S&P 600 on March 18. The death cross is when the 50-day simple average crosses below the 200-day on an index, industry, sector, or individual stock. While there have been some massive SPX declines after a death cross (including 1930, 1937, 1940, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1981, 2000, 2002, 2007, and 2022), there also have been instances where the losses were less than 10% and other times when there was no loss at all. So we view the death cross as a possible warning, but with a good deal of "urban legend" baked in. We also have seen some other potentially worrisome crossovers in the SPX, with the 10-week crossing the 21-week exponential (EMA), and crosses involving the 10-week simple/40-week simple, the 16-week EMA/39-week EMA (very close), the 13-week EMA under both the 26-week and 40-week EMA, and the 26-week EMA close to cutting the 40-week for a double bearish cross-over. The SPX has not broken the very important support from the 50-month and the 200-week simple averages, which is between 4,665 and 4,690. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Stock indices ripped higher on Monday as tariff fears abated over the weekend. The S&P 500 (SPX) and the S&P 100 were up 1.8%, the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) popped between 2.2% and 2.3%, the S&P 400 jumped 2.5%, and the S&P 600 leapt 2.6%. Since the March 13 closing low, the SPX is higher by 4.6% in seven days and between 1.1% and 2.1% on three of those days. The SPX has broken its steep downtrend off the February 19 high and has retraced a bit more than 38.2% of the decline. The index closed right at a piece of chart resistance that begins at 5,773 (the intraday low on January 13). As we have been saying, there is a major cluster of resistance for the SPX between 5,750 and 5,825. It includes the slightly rising 200-day average and the declining 21-day exponential, both of which were recaptured on Monday; a 38% and 50% retracement of the decline; and the closing and intraday breakdown levels from January 12 and 13. Above that, the falling 21-week exponential moving average (EMA) is at 5,854 and a 61.8% retracement as well as the declining 50-day average are up near 5,900. Preliminary volume was light on the SPY (SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust) and the QQQ, so Monday was not one of the accumulation days we are hoping to get. The SPX is close to a five-day/13-day EMA bullish crossover, which would reverse the bearish cross on February 21 when the index was still over 6,000. The QQQ is also close to getting a five-day/13-day EMA bull cross. So while more is needed, the market is off to a good recovery start. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Palantir develops and provides software that enables customers from government agencies to commercial enterprises to integrate data for decision-making and operations at scale. The company initially provided its software to the U.S. intelligence services before broadening its customer base. In 2023, 55% of its revenue was generated by its government segment and 45% from its commercial segment; 34% of revenue was generated outside the U.S. Palantir's class A shares trade publicly under the symbol PLTR. Palantir's super-voting class B and class F shares, held by insiders and founders, do not trade publicly. The company is effectively controlled by founders Alexander Karp, Stephen Cohen, and Peter Thiel through the super-voting class F shares that represent a 49.99% voting interest. Palantir was founded in 2003 and went public at $10 per share on September 30, 2020.

U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday ahead of the January jobs report. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were higher, while the Dow was down. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq was up 0.5%. The Dow fell 0.3%.