Downside risk in stocks: Technician

The stock market needs a significant pullback, and chart analyses suggest that it could be coming soon, technician Carter Worth of Oppenheimer said Monday.

"We need a correction that needs things healthy," he said. "Five percent doesn't do it."

Worth made the case in June that stocks would to head 3 to 5 percent lower.

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The S&P 500 closed at 1,685.33, down 0.37 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.24 percent to close at 15,521.97.

On CNBC's "Fast Money," Worth noted that the S&P 500 had been trading upward within a range, with a breakout to the upside on May 3 and a dip below on June 20.

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Stocks needed to move toward the upper end of that range to avert a correction, he added.

"It is vital that you stay not only in the channel but get back to the top of it," Worth said. "If we go back to the bottom trend, it has all the hallmarks of losing steam, and we're only 1 percent from the bottom of the channel now.

"We think it's not good."

Worth noted that most investors were still bullish because "the premise is there's nowhere else to go."

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In the Russell 2000, Worth also noted that stocks were 12 percent above its 150-day moving average.

"When you're 12 p or higher, again, the risk/reward is asymmetrical," he said. "You get limited gains and you have all sorts of downside risk."

— By CNBC's Bruno J. Navarro. Follow him on Twitter @Bruno_J_Navarro.

— CNBC's Michael Newberg contributed research to this report.