When SPX Closes Just Under a 50-day High Prior to a Fed Day

Yesterday I showed that Fed Days typically carry a bullish edge, but that edge failed to hold when the SPX closed at a 20-day high just prior to the Fed Day. By closing down 0.1% Tuesday the SPX narrowly missed closing at a 20-day high. So are we now safe because the market just missed a new high by 0.1% on Tuesday? Last night I suspected not. And so I ran the below test. Since we are near a 50-day high I used that as the filter rather than a 20-day high. I looked at times where the SPX did NOT close at a 50-day high, but in fact closed less than 0.5% below it. So although it is not a new high, the environment still appears positive. Let’s look at the results.

Twenty-five instances and the result is nearly dead-even. This is very similar to what we saw with yesterday’s study. I’m not viewing today as a typical strongly-bullish Fed Day.