overbought

It sort of put the market in an overbought condition."

First, the overbought condition of the market has diminished.

We had a very overbought situation which was begging for a correction."

A market in an "overbought" condition is believed to be ripe for a downturn.

"This is just a correction from a market that was very overbought," one government bond trader said.

From overbought levels, a decline below +100 and a trend line break could be considered bearish.

"The Dow refuses to go down, even in its overbought position, as it makes internal adjustments through rotation."

"I don't want to say 'overbought' because that scares too many people, but this is a normal retracement."

Oscillators are used to discover short-term overbought or oversold conditions.

This allows the indicator to show intermediate overbought and oversold levels effectively.

"Bond weakness together with a slight overbought condition contributed to today's softness," he said.

Analysts said the market was correcting from an overbought condition after making strong gains in mid-June.

CCI can be used to identify overbought and oversold levels.

From overbought levels, a sell signal might be given when the CCI moved back below +100.

"The market has already had a fairly long period of advance and may have moved into an overbought condition," Mr. Levitt said.

Mr. Birinyi said that although many of his indicators pointed to an "overbought" market in the short term, investors seemed untroubled.

It's all very orderly though, there's no panic yet and you have to expect some profit-taking to relieve the overbought situation," one trader said.

She agreed that the market was somewhat overbought, "but many a major upward move in the market has started from overbought levels."

Readings above +100 imply an overbought condition, while readings below 100 imply an oversold condition.

If this were to happen, we would get the shock that bears believe would come on the back of such an overbought market on such weak fundamentals.

"At some point the market just has to succumb to an overbought position," said Philip J. Roth, a technical analyst with Morgan Stanley.

Harry W. Laubscher, senior vice president and market analyst at Tucker Anthony, said the over-the-counter stocks were going even lower because of an "overbought" market.

William Arndt, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., attributed much of the selling to a technical correction in an overbought market.

"Copper is still technically very overbought, which in some ways is proving just how strong the market is," said William Adams, analyst at Rudolf Wolff.

Analysts are reluctant to speculate on how high prices could go, saying there is concern among many market participants that oil could become overbought and that a selloff would follow.