Quote from piezoe:
Nerves, I follow this myself. Not the dollar index but the dollar futures and not SPY but SPX or in my case ES. So same thing really. It is not all that unusual for the dollar to get decoupled so to speak from the broad market for various periods of time. It is true that the dollar and the market tend to move in opposite directions and often for periods during the day they can appear to be joined at the hip as reciprocals of each other.
My thinking is that a reciprocal relationship is the normal one and over longer periods of time a falling dollar should correspond to a rising market. This is consistent with what one sees in long term charts of the S&P. And when these same charts are expressed in constant dollars it becomes clear that over the long haul dividends and inflation are the major drivers of stock prices, and not earnings as might be thought, however one has to consider that dollar weakness can improve earnings for companies doing business abroad where earnings are in a stronger currency. When those earnings get converted to dollars on the balance sheet they look pretty good. But of course it is largely an illusion.
Now back to the dollar and the S&P futures. You have probably noticed that the dollar has been in a constant slide since early June. In fact it has really been in a slide ever since the financial crisis in 2008 and the Fed's announcing of "quantitative easing." However it is going down in a very wide channel overall since 2008 so there have been periods when it is rising, but since 2008, always with a lower high.
I note that most recently since June of 2010 the dollar has been in a narrower channel and definitely down. On the other hand the market appears over the same period to be range bound. We are now trading close to where we were in late June.
From a technical standpoint, the dollar is clearly at support, and the very important Euro/USD is coming into overhead resistance at the same time. Also consistent with this picture is the USD/JPY which is also at support and traders are expecting the USD/JPY not to trade much lower than 85 for now.
What does this mean for SPX, SPY and ES? I really don't know, and I'd be rich if I did, but it has occurred to me that the Fed is to make an announcement tomorrow and there are some renewed calls for further goosing of the economy. One rumor is that the Fed will buy more long bonds and of course that gives the Treasury more dollars to spend and those will eventually wend their way deeper into the economy. The popular media talk seems to be coming down on the side of extra gloomy (a bullish factor as I see it). And importantly we have a national election coming up in November . My thinking is that all of these factors are aligned to favor a bullish outlook for the Fall up until the election. This I would think would be especially likely to transpire if the dollar should breakdown below support, and possibly Fed or Treasury action will be the catalyst that causes that to happen. So at this point I'm just waiting and watching, but I would not be at all surprised to see a Fall rally even though it might seem counterintuitive in such a gloomy economic climate.
Eventually the market must respond to a weaker dollar -- it really has little other choice, unless of course the economy becomes totally unraveled, and then who knows what might happen..