Profit Confidential Weighs in on Stock Market’s 2015 Performance, Explains Terrible Start to 2016

Profit Confidential is weighing in on the S&P 500’s 2015 performance and explaining what the worst start to this year is really all about.

New York, United States – January 14, 2016 /MarketersMedia/ —

Profit Confidential (www.ProfitConfidential.com), a financial news and opinion web site owned by Lombardi Publishing Corporation, a 30-year-old consumer publisher that has served over one million customers in 141 countries, is weighing in on the performance of the S&P 500 in 2015 and is explaining what the stock markets‘ worst start to the New Year is really all about.

After three years of double-digit gains, the S&P 500 closed out 2015 down 0.7%, the worst annual performance since the financial crisis in 2008, when the index declined 38.5%. That downward pressure has extended into the New Year. After the first full week of trading in 2016, the S&P 500 has lost six percent of its value. Over the same period of time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down in excess of six percent, making it the worst start to a year ever for the Dow.

“Much of the downward pressure has been attributed to the decline in oil prices and economic instability in China. But there is more to the broader picture than these factors. The 20-year bull market ended in late 2007, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at just over 14,000,” says economist and lead contributor to Profit Confidential, Michael Lombardi. “After that, a secular bear market started, taking the Dow Jones down to 6,440 on March 9, 2009; Phase I of a bear market, often called the ‘takedown.’”

Lombardi explains a bear market rally then brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average to 18,351 in 2015, which was Phase II of the secular bear market, often referred to as the “sucker’s rally” or a “dead cat bounce.” Phase II of the current bear market has been prolonged by the intervention of the government and the Federal Reserve, according to Lombardi.

Phase III, the final leg of a secular bear market, brings stocks all the way back to a point between a) 50% below the original Phase I low and the dead cat bounce high (in this case 12,395 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average) and b) the Phase II low (6,440 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in this case).

“In 2015, I wrote extensively on how the stock market spent much of the year putting in a major top for stock prices. In the context of a secular bear market, this now looks accurate,” Lombardi concludes. “All eyes may be on China, oil prices, and issues in the Middle East, but Phase III of a secular bear market could well be underway in 2016. And investors need to be prepared.”

Founded in 1986, Lombardi Publishing Corporation, which has served over one million customers in 141 countries, is one of the largest consumer information publishers in the world. For more information on Lombardi Publishing Corporation, visit www.LombardiPublishing.com.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.profitconfidential.com/

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Source: http://marketersmedia.com/profit-confidential-weighs-in-on-stock-markets-2015-performance-explains-terrible-start-to-2016/101239

Release ID: 101239