In the worst global economic slowdown for a generation, capital-market activity has contracted sharply (see chart).

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Yet as this chart reveals, without government-sponsored activity, we were dead-on.

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They determine this by looking at a complex set of lines overlaid onto a stock chart, such as moving averages, support lines, volume activity, etc.

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Heading into the earnings report JPMorgan has been lagging the group though, down more than 4% over the last month (see chart below), but its results are also likely to catch a tailwind from the very activity that lifted the market in the first three months of 2013.

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