Another dismal performance underneath the surface

Cumulative ticks finished at -70,000 on Wednesday and this comes on top of -60,000 on Monday. So under the surface it is evident that the sentiment is quite bearish (bids are being hit more than asks). There's also been an expansion of 52 week lows in SPX components (15) and this is greater than the number we experienced at the March lows (8) when the SPX was a tad lower so one can infer that a fair bit of tape damage has been done if it wasn't obvious already. Still the market remains oversold and most quant data is still calling for some kind of bounce (we should have bounced 2-3 days ago) so we are really entering a space that is outside of historical norms. I suppose the longer we go without a bounce the more people are inclined to buy expecting a bounce. The worrying thing is that the tape action and slow grind down is not in my experience a pattern that has been suggestive of a strong bounce in the past. Bounces on an intraday level have been weak (mostly look like short covering) and if that is the general pattern then expect a daily bounce to be the same.