This Stock Chart Paints an Ugly Picture for Bulls

  • 200-day moving average is breached as share volume explodes
  • A measure of uptick-downtick trades is worst since flash crash
Why the U.S. Stock Market Is Still Tumbling
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Bulls hoping the U.S. stock market will stage another of its famous rebounds are staring anxiously at a technical level that has been a pillar of the market’s foundation for almost three years.

It’s the 200-day moving average on the S&P 500 Index, an obsession on Wall Street after the benchmark index closed almost 1.4 percent below it Thursday. Selloffs in February, March and April all found a floor at the level, and the boundary has rarely been pierced since the beginning of 2016.