The AD Volume Line for the Nasdaq broke its March trendline and formed a lower high in May. This indicator is a cumulative measure for the volume of advancing stocks less the volume of declining stocks. Notice that recent peaks and troughs in the Nasdaq coicided with peaks and troughs... READ MORE
Wal-Mart is tracing out a continuation head-and-shoulders pattern with neckline support around 47.5-48. It is a bit unusual because the neckline is sloping up, which reflects higher lows since early February. A break below support would confirm the pattern and signal a continuation lower. Conversely, a break above the... READ MORE
After a decline below 30, Sunoco (SUN) suddenl firmed with a high volume harami on Monday (18-May). These are potentially bullish candlestick reversal patterns that require confirmation with further upside. Look for volume to confirm any breakout.... READ MORE
Charts Worth Watching: ANF, AZO, CAL, CB, INTC, ITB, LUV, PGR, QQQQ, SMH, SWY, SYY, XLB, XLF The next update will be Friday (May 22) around 9AM ET. ***************************************************************** The moment of truth is close. Based on positive reports from State Street (STT) and Lowe's (LOW), stocks moved sharply... READ MORE
After a massive 9 week advance, the Dow ran into resistance with its biggest weekly decline since early March. There is a resistance zone coming into play around 8700-8800 from the falling 40-week moving average and the Oct-Nov consolidation. After establishing support in Oct-Nov, this triangle consolidation now turns into... READ MORE
Broken support turns into resistance. This classic tenet of technical analysis is coming into play for the 10-Year Treasury Yield ($TNX). Notice that the 10-Year Treasury Yield broke support around 33-34 (3.3-3.4%) and this area turned into resistance in early May.... READ MORE
Tidewater (TDW) formed a massive bearish engulfing that engulfed the prior five candlesticks. Volume surged to its highest level since January. What's more, this is the second bearish engulfing pattern in two weeks. These patterns reflect a raging battle at resistance from the January-February highs.... READ MORE
Today's Charts Include: AMZN, ANF, ARO, CEPH, CHRW, COV, CPRT, FDX, GILD, INTC, IYT, JBHT, JWN, RL, UPS, XRT. The next update will be Tuesday (May 19th) around 9AM ET. ***************************************************************** The consumer discretionary sector and the retail group were hit hard over the last three days. Actually, the... READ MORE
Best Buy (BBY) broke support and the 50-day moving average with a sharp decline over the last six days. Notice how the Aroon Oscillator turned negative just before this support break. In fact, this Aroon signal would have shown up on the Aroon scan last Thursday.... READ MORE
After a most impressive rally, the Dow Transports stopped just short of its 200-day simple moving average with a sharp decline the last four days. Also notice that this key average is trading below its prior reaction high (early January). Watch the rising 50-day moving average for potential support on... READ MORE
Today's charts include: SPY, ANF, BIIB, CHH, CL, FLML, GLD, IBB, ITB, LEN, MDC, NIKE, QQQQ, SEPR, SVU, VRTX, WMT, XLP, XLY. The next update will be Thursday (May 14th) morning around 9AM ET. ***************************************************************** Let's start with the broad market. Even though the S&P... READ MORE
With flat trading since late March, a volatility contraction for AT&T (T) is causing the Bollinger Bands to narrow. Bollinger Bands do not provide a directional bias, but last week's high volume decline shows selling pressure picking up steam.... READ MORE
The S&P Sector Carpet shows a color-coded version of the leading and lagging sectors. Dark green sectors are leading with financial and energy showing the biggest gains on Friday. The technology was conspicuously absent from the leadership board on Friday. In fact, technology was the worst performing sector... READ MORE
Charts Worth Watching: ANF, BIIB, CHH, CL, FLML, GLD, IBB, ITB, LEN, MDC, NIKE, QQQQ, SEPR, SPY, SVU, VRTX, WMT, XLP, XLY. Scheduling Note: The next posting will be on Tuesday, May 12 around 9AM ET. ***************************************************************** The Nasdaq declined with the highest volume of the year on Thursday. While a... READ MORE
Looking through the scans page, I noticed that Game stop broke below its lower Bollinger Band with a high volume decline. Moreover, the stock is showing relative weakness as the price relative broke below its March lows. GME is moving down while the S&P 500 has been moving... READ MORE
With 14-day RSI moving above 70 this week, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQQ) became the first major-index ETF with an overbought reading. RSI is considered overbought when above 70 and oversold when below 30. For the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and Dow Industrials ETF... READ MORE
Demand for certain commodity ETFs is moving in the same direction as the stock market: UP. Economic growth translates into more demand for industrial metals (DBB), oil (USO), gasoline (UGA) and agricultural products (UGA). In a bit of a strange twist, natural gas (UNG) and livestock (COW) remain laggards.... READ MORE
With Monday's market surge, some lagging ETFs joined the bulls with consolidation breakouts. The next four charts show sector ETFs that were lagging SPY because they remained below resistance from the March-April highs. These sector ETFs are still lagging, but they are now trying to play some catch-up... READ MORE
Charts Worth Watching: BTU, CVX, ELON, EWW, KOL, LUB, MMC, RF and SLV. Even though Mexico is ground-zero for swine flu, the Mexico ETF (EWW) shows no signs of the bug as it challenges resistance from the January high. There was a gap down last week, but the ETF recovered... READ MORE
The PerfChart below shows the percentage change for the S&P 500 and the nine sector SPDRs. The S&P 500 acts as the benchmark for relative performance. Sectors with greater percentage gains are outperforming the S&P 500. Sectors smaller percentage gains are underperforming. Defining the... READ MORE
Check out theticker cloudto see what's hot every morning. While there will always be the old standby symbols like GLD, DIG, DUG, GOOG, QID and FXI popping up, you are also likely to see some the stars d' jour. For Friday morning, I noticed interest inAlcoa(AA)... READ MORE
- Sector ETF Leaders and Laggards (XLY, XLB, XLK, XLP, XLV, XLE) The Materials SPDR (XLB) was the latest to join the sector breakout club. With a surge from 18 to 26 (~30%), the ETF broke above its Dec-Jan highs over the past five days. The bottom indicator shows the... READ MORE
- Charts Worth Watching (APA, CLF, JOYG, NSM, NVDA, T, NKE, CL). Despite relative weakness in the energy sector, Apache (APA) broke consolidation resistance with a volume surge on Thursday. Also notice that the price relative turned up over the last few days and broke above the late January trendline.... READ MORE
A run through the PnF scans reveals a triple top breakout for QQQQ on Wednesday. This means prices pushed the current "x" above the prior two highs (green arrow). Despite this breakout, QQQQ is trading right at potential resistance from the bearish resistance line.... READ MORE
Charts: KFT, LLY, URBN XRAY Stocks are up sharply in early trading ahead of today's FOMC policy statement. Even though the major stock indices are still looking overbought, the current uptrend remains in place as stocks continue to attract money. It takes some real guts to buy overbought... READ MORE
-- Financial stocks showing relative weakness -- Stocks trading near resistance and overbought -- Bullish considerations After a big advance the last 9-10 weeks, many stocks are running into resistance. In addition, many are are overbought and ripe for at least a correction or consolidation. The same can be said... READ MORE
-- Financial stocks showing relative weakness -- Stocks trading near resistance and overbought -- Bullish considerations With a bounce last week, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQQ) moved above its mid April high and the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) challenged its mid April high. However, some key financial stocks... READ MORE
The healthcare, utilities and consumer staples sectors are traditionally the defensive sectors that underperform during a broad market advance. This was the case in March and most of April. With Monday's weakness, the defensive sectors held up and all three finished with small gains. It is just one... READ MORE
Welcome to the first posting day at Art's Charts. This blog will feature bullish and bearish setups for stocks and ETFs. Every week I scan through the chart universe looking for breakouts, strong trends, reversals and key chart patterns. Each setup will feature an annotated chart with detailed... READ MORE
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) is part of the retail apparel industry group and the consumer discretionary sector. ANF surged with a gap up in early April, but failed to hold this surge and filled the gap in mid April. The inability tohold the gap-surge shows weakness. There was another, and... READ MORE
Agilent Technology (A) surged in March and then formed an ascending triangle over the last 4-5 weeks. These classic patterns are bullish continuation patterns that require confirmation with a breakout. The equal highs around 17.2 mark overhead supply (resistance). The higher lows in April show buying pressure (demand) coming... READ MORE
Centerpoint Energy (CNP) is part of the electric utilities group. The defensive utilities sector has been struggling lately, but managed a gain in the face of Monday's market weakness. Investors may turn to defense if the market weakens further. CNP surged with good volume in mid March and... READ MORE
The NYSE AD Line moved above its January high to record a new high for 2009. In contrast, the NY Composite Index remains below its January high. This show of relative strength in the AD Line reflects broad participation in the current advance and bodes well for the current uptrend.... READ MORE
Super Value (SVU) surged above its 50-day moving average and wedge resistance with a big move on big volume. The 200-day moving average is just ahead for the next challenge.... READ MORE
Air Products (APD) is part of the chemicals group and the basic materials sectors. After surging to resistance in March, the stock consolidated around the 60 the last few weeks. The bulls came out in force as the stock surged to its highest level of the year with big volume... READ MORE
Aetna (AET) retraced 62% of the Feb-Mar decline with a rising wedge that peaked in mid April. Both the wedge and the retracement are typical for corrective rallies within bigger downtrends. Also notice that the 200-day moving average is falling and the 50-day moving average is below the 200-day moving... READ MORE
The Retail HOLDRs (RTH) hit massive resistance around 78-80 for the third time since October. Resistance in this area stems from the October, January and April highs. In addition, the falling 200-day moving average is coming into play. After a run from 60 to 80, RTH is ripe for a... READ MORE
Wal-Mart (WMT), which is the biggest component in RTH, is leading the way lower with a break below its 50-day moving average on Monday. Notice that WMT peaked at the 200-day moving average on 2-April and did not follow the broader market higher over the last two weeks. The king... READ MORE
The Dow Industrials ETF (DIA) shows a classic case of becoming overbought and remaining overbought. I featured DIA in ChartWatchers two weeks ago as it hit potential resistance around 80. The song remains the same as DIA finished at 81.31 on Friday. Let's review resistance. First, the... READ MORE
The Dow Industrials ETF (DIA) surged off its 50-day moving average with a big advance on Wednesday and a gap on Thursday. While the four-week surge is most impressive, the ETF is running into a resistance zone and becoming overbought. First, broken supports around 80 turn into resistance. This level... READ MORE