The Fed’s December meeting begins today and there has been much discussion and debate in anticipation of this meeting… 

It may be “missioned accomplished” and an “all clear” as the market continues to recover from its recent lows. 

The Nasdaq falling yesterday, underperforming other of the major market indices; at face value it looks like a harsh retreat, but it’s really just a reaction following its rally back up to its November peaks as of Wednesday’s closing. 

A number of the higher momentum growth stocks have moved back above their 50-day moving average levels; this is encouraging but I think the easy recovered gains have been realized. 

The Dow and the other major market indices may be in the initial stages of forming reverse “head and shoulders” patterns.

Statistically, the market retreat appears to be relatively moderate; the Dow has declined just 7% from its all-time highs to its recent intraday lows. 

The VIX moving to higher high intraday on Friday and those highs cleared the peaks that we saw earlier in the week last week. 

The Dow pivoting from the 34,000 area; that is a level that I’ve mentioned for many months as a longer-term support line — not an exact line, but an approximation. 

The Dow is now down 7% from its record-high level set on November 8 to where it finished yesterday at the 34,000 area; that’s an area I’ve been calling the longer-term support area. 

Stocks up this morning with the Dow up over 300 points, so that could drive it back into the upper part of that support band of between 34,500 and 34,700.