The oldest stock market indicator known to man is flashing a big buy sign
Reports on the imminent demise of the eight-year equity bull market have been greatly exaggerated, at least according to a century-old indicator. The godfather of technical analysis, known as Dow Theory, says transportation and industrial stocks must advance together for market gains to last. The most bullish possible signal is when the two groups hit record highs simultaneously. That happened in October, and the subsequent uptrend has yielded 17% in returns for the Dow Jones industrial average. So it's smooth sailing for stocks, right? Not quite. The situation is not that simple for stock bears. Recent strength in the Dow propelled the index to a new record on June 19, but the associated transportation index did not reach one, and that lack of confirmation has troubled some market pessimists. Fear not, says Raymond James chief investment strategist Jeffrey Saut, who points out that transportation and industrial indexes in the S...