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... 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... 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. The... 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 for many... 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 failed to bounce... 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,... 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)... 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... 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... 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... 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.... READ MORE
After a sharp advance the last two weeks, SPY hit a classic resistance zone and pulled back over the last two days. Three items confirm resistance in the low 80s. First, broken support around 80-81 turns into resistance. Second, the falling 50-day moving average marks resistance. Third, the... READ MORE
Two weeks ago I featured the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQQ) with a triangle breakout, strong OBV and relative strength. The ETF surged to resistance from the early January high, but ultimately failed to break above this key level. With a sharp decline over the last eight trading days, the trading... READ MORE
The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQQ) is breaking out of its trading range. The chart below shows QQQQ stuck in a trading since 10-Oct. Focusing on the blue dotted line marking the mid October lows, we can see that QQQQ traded above and below this line numerous times the last... READ MORE