The stock market has been trading in an extremely narrow range for almost two months. During that time I have mostly attributed this unusual action to the ambivalence of the Fed: “We really want to raise interest rates, except we really don’t want to raise interest rates. Standby for immediate action.” I knew that there were some election jitters factored in there, but I’m beginning to think it’s more about the election than the Fed.
Here’s a SPY chart that emphasizes what we have been enduring of late–a 1.5% trading range, divided by two ranges of about 0.75%. Give me a break.