Existing home sales weakened significantly in December, capping a poor year for the housing market. Real Time Economic Calendar provided by Investing.com. *** Stocks highlighted are for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice to purchase or to sell mentioned securities. As always, the use of technical and fundamental analysis is encouraged in order to fine tune entry and exit points to average seasonal trends. Stocks Entering Period of Seasonal Strength Today: Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) Seasonal Chart Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) Seasonal Chart V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) Seasonal Chart Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS) Seasonal Chart CAI International Inc. (NYSE:CAI) Seasonal Chart Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) Seasonal Chart Tapestry, Inc. (NYSE:TPR) Seasonal Chart The Markets Stocks dipped on Tuesday as economic growth concerns were reignited following a weak report on housing and a downgrade of growth estimates from the International Monetary Fund. The S&P 500 Index fell by 1.42%, moving back towards its 50-day moving average at 2623. On Friday, the benchmark tested a couple of resistance levels from which it seemed reaction was likely. First was the upper limit to a short-term rising wedge pattern stemming from the December low. In addition, trendline resistance spanning the peaks from the early October high seemed a probable candidate for a reactionary move. The benchmark has been bound by a declining megaphone pattern throughout the past quarter, helping to define the trend of lower-lows and lower-highs. Momentum indicators on the hourly chart are rolling over, alleviating the overbought conditions that were apparent at the end of last week. In the near-term, investors are likely to take their cues from headlines and earnings that continue to dominate the tape, but clearly market levels present more risk now than they did one month ago when values were significantly depressed. On the economic front, a weak report on existing home sales capped a rather concerning year for the housing market. The headline print indicated that sales of existing homes in the US fell by 6.4% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million. Analysts had been expecting a rate of 5.225 million. The year-over-year change now stands at -10.3% from -6.8% reported previous. Stripping out the seasonal adjustments, existing home sales actually fell by 7.1%, which is a significant negative divergence compared to the 4.4% average gain for this last month of the year. This is the second weakest December result in the past two decades, rivaled only by the 12.2% decline in December 2009 as the industry continued to feel the strain of the Great Recession. Housing tends to be a leading indicator of broader economic activity and therefore a good gauge of equity market performance ahead. The signal that is sending certainly warrants caution. To read more, sign up to our service at https://charts.equityclock.com/subscribe and we’ll send you our report that we sent out subscribers during Tuesday’s session. North of the border, manufacturing sales in Canada missed analyst expectations by a wide margin. The headline print indicated that sales of manufactured goods fell by 1.4% in November, pulling the year-over-year change down to +2.7% from +7.8% previous. Analysts had expected a decline of a mere 0.5% for the month. Stripping out the seasonal adjustments, sales of goods manufactured actually declined by 2.8%, which is weaker than the 2.6% decline that is average for this second to last month of the calendar year. Year-to-date, the 12.6% rise through the end of November is still above the average increase by this point in the year of 11.0%. Seasonally, sales of goods manufactured tend to decline through the winter months, then rebound in the spring. To learn more about what is driving the manufacturing economy in Canada and the resulting investment implications, subscribe to the chart database at https://charts.equityclock.com/subscribe. Sentiment on Tuesday, as gauged by the put-call ratio, ended bullish at 0.93. Seasonal charts of companies reporting earnings today: S&P 500 Index TSE Composite