recent 52week highs for the dow jones industrial average and its sibling the dow jones transportation average are a positive sign for a broader bull market in keeping with one of the most historically accurate strategies for identifying primary trends in stocks dow industrials djia are on track for a 12th straight day of gains on tuesday which would match a win streak last seen in february 2017 they’re up almost 24 from their 52week closing low from september after ending monday at the highest since feb 9 2022 the transportation index djt also rose on tuesday and is up 21 this year after closing at a 52week high last week the bluechip dow up around 7 so far this year is playing catchup with the sp 500 spx  up more than 19 in the year to date and the techheavy nasdaq composite comp  which has surged more than 35 in 2023  read as the dow hits 2023 high one of the oldest stockmarket forecasting tools is making a comeback and watch the dow transports for clues about the economy not the stock market dow theory indicates that the broader stock market is likely to be headed higher if two averages usually dow industrials and the transportation index reach new highs in the same short period it’s a strategy that dates back to the early 1900s and was pioneered by charles h dow one of the founders of the wall street journal and dow jones  co the publisher of marketwatch   “one of the tenets of dow theory is that the averages must confirm each other meaning breakouts and breakdowns should happen in concert and that’s what happening now” said adam turnquist chief technical strategist for lpl financial in charlotte nc   given the recent breakouts in both dow jones indexes a “dow theory buy signal has now been triggered” as of last week “adding to the evidence of the sustainability of this bull market” turnquist said via phone lpl defines a bull market as occurring not only when there’s a 20 or more gain off a bear low a widely used definition but after considering “the weight of the evidence” which includes breadth or how many stocks are participating in the upward trend see it’s a ‘bull market’ for stocks here’s what that means  in a chart turnquist shows the average forward returns made by the dow jones industrial average dow transports and the sp 500 after a buy signal is registered  on monday stephen suttmeier technical research strategist for bofa securities wrote that major us stock indexes “have gotten more in sync” with this summer’s rally   a week ago all three major us stock indexes ended the new york session at their highest levels in 15 months and dow industrials have only continued to climb ever since “many indicators have flashed bullish backdrop signals that support the case for a much higher equity market well into 2024” suttmeier wrote “the fomo fear of missing out 2023 summer rally has gotten plenty of confirmation” at a time when dow industrials and the transportation gauge are in confirmed bull markets based on dow theory  on tuesday financial markets shifted into waitandsee mode ahead of wednesday’s policy announcement by the federal reserve with all three major us stock indexes moving higher meanwhile 2 through 30year treasury yields were also up in afternoon trading amid a higherforlonger theme in us rates  meanwhile one of the market’s bestknown stockmarket bears issued a mea culpa this week mike wilson the chief us equity strategist for morgan stanley ms  said “we were wrong” in a note to clients on monday and that the upside move in equity multiples “has gone further and persisted longer than we anticipated”  jpmorgan chase  co’s marko kolanovic who turned into a bear this year is standing by his call for a stockmarket selloff kolanovic warned on monday that fresh market declines and volatility are likely to still be in store given the delayed impact of interestrate hikes by global central banks dwindling consumer savings and a “deeply troubling” geopolitical backdrop