Time for an Update: Bear Market, Yet?

From my posting of Friday, March 2, 2007 (please read the entire post), I said, "Tuesday’s (February 27) market plunge of over 400 Dow points has drawn a lot of attention from the media. However, on a relative basis the decline was 3.3%, which, in fact, was the first significant decline since this “bull” rally started approximately five years ago. Typically, corrections during bull markets are anywhere from 10% to 12%. This 3% decline is nowhere near other bull market corrections. Don’t let all the media hype about this correction lose site of the fact that we are still in a bull market."

I also said on Friday, March 2, 2007, "Now, at what levels on the DJIA and S&P 500 will negate or call into question this current bull market? For the DJIA, the level is 11,783, or 4.5% from the current level. For the S&P 500, the level is 1,358 or 3.2% from the current level. At these levels, I would definitely become concern."

Given the market's frenzy over the past two weeks, are we to those levels on the DJIA and S&P 500 that I mentioned back in March 2007 where I would get very concerned? The answer is "NO." The low on August 16 for the DJIA was 12, 455.92. For the S&P 500, the low on August 16 was 1370.60. Since August 16, the DJIA and S&P 500 are up 5% and 6%, respectively, from their lows. Keep-in-mind that corrections during bull markets are usually 10% to 12%. So far, the recent corrections from the July 19 high to the August low on the DJIA and S&P 500 have been 11.79% and 11.87%, respectively.