MARKET SUMMARY: Consolidation (or a whole lot of nothin’)
To follow up on last month’s report, entitled “Breakout”, we felt the most appropriate theme, given the extremely tight range this month, was a consolidation of past months’ gains. In August, we observed a market that, for lack of a better term, was boring. The S&P stayed in a tight range all month, never closing more than a percent from July’s closing level. Intraday volatility was nonexistent. In fact, through the end of August, we’ve now had 38 straight days where the market has moved less than 1% on a closing basis.