Closing Market Comments 03-19-2014

Major U.S. market indices opened with small gains this morning, they then trended lower and closed with moderate losses. Fed President Janet Yellen believe that interest rates will likely rise  in about six months after the end of quantitative easing. In her first conference with reporters after taking the seat of Fed chair, investors sensed that interest rate may go up sooner than expectation.  Besides selling stocks, investors also dump treasuries and gold as US dollar index rose the sharpest in months.  10-year bond yield soared 0.091% to 2.772%.  Gold dropped 28.20 to 1330.60 per troy ounce. These trends likely will continue in the near term. Technically, the Dow fell sharply today by  114 points after rising for the past two days, and a bearish outside day pattern on its chart is formed. The market will likely continued to come down in the near term. Dow support is 16137 and resistance is 16370.