Stocks surged in early trading, worked their way lower in mid morning and then plunged after lunch. With a small rebound in the final hour, the net losses were reduced and the major index ETFs closed fractionally lower. The Russell 2000 held up the best and closed fractionally higher. Energy,... READ MORE
Stocks opened weak with a sharp decline in the first 30 minutes and then traded flat the rest of the day. Even though stocks managed to firm after early weakness, buyers held back and the major index ETFs closed with modest losses. Oil got the blame again as crude fell... READ MORE
The sector PerfChart shows year-to-date performance for the nine sector SPDRs and SPY. Three sectors are up, six are down and SPY is down fractionally. The HealthCare SPDR (XLV) was the second best performing sector in 2014 and it is the best performing sector so far this year. The Energy... READ MORE
It was a pretty wild week as stocks plunged Monday-Tuesday, surged Wednesday-Thursday and fell back on Friday. After all the pushing and shoving, the major index ETFs ended with small losses for the week. Well, IWM lost 1.14%, which is a modest loss. Energy, industrials and finance weighed on... READ MORE
Microsoft (MSFT) sprang to life with a harami on Tuesday-Wednesday and a gap up on Thursday. This gap confirmed the harami and should be considered bullish as long as it holds. A move back below 46 would fill the gap and negate this reversal. Note that the long-term trend is... READ MORE
It is just like mid December as SPY, IWM and QQQ fell sharply and then suddenly reversed with a two-day surge. As with mid December, traders not getting in before the gap are now stuck wondering how to play this reversal, especially with the employment report on deck this morning.... READ MORE
Stocks finally got an oversold bounce and even closed strong. Most of the bounce occurred with a morning pop, but SPY, IWM and QQQ managed to add to these early gains. In particular, IWM got a late surge and closed near the high of the day. SPY and QQQ closed... READ MORE
StockCharts users can view the StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) tables on the home page and even focus on the big movers by clicking the "top up" tab. I noticed Molson Coors (TAP) with a big move and interesting chart. The stock, which is part of the consumer staples... READ MORE
Stocks took it on the chin again with small-caps leading the way lower. IWM fell 1.73%, QQQ lost 1.34% and SPY declined .94%. All three are down over 4% the last five days and short-term oversold. It was clearly a risk off day as the 20+ YR T-Bond... READ MORE
Stocks ended the year weak and started the year weak with Greece and oil getting most of the blame. Light Crude fell below $50 and energy stocks got hammered. European stocks plunged on fears of a Greek exit, and Japan followed suit today with a 3% decline. I am not... READ MORE
Stocks got the Santa Claus rally, but it fizzled after Christmas and selling pressure took hold over the last three trading days. After a big advance from 17 to 29 December, the stock market was entitled to a pullback. The major index ETFs are now trading in big support zones... READ MORE
A month ago in ChartWatchers I wrote about the bullish seasonal pattern for small-caps and featured a big flag pattern on the chart for the Russell 2000 ETF. Trading turned volatile in mid December, but the bullish seasonal pattern held up and the Santa Claus rally ultimately materialized. The Russell... READ MORE
The S&P 500 took a dip on the last trading day of 2014, but several home construction and retail stocks bucked the selling pressure. Chartists can easily separate the winners and losers using the Sector Market Carpet. The image below focuses on the cyclicals (consumer discretionary) sector and... READ MORE
Flextronics (FLEX) hit a 52-week high in June and then formed an extended consolidation that looks like an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. It is not picture perfect, but the "essence" of the pattern is there. There is a prior uptrend, a left shoulder dip, a deeper dip for the... READ MORE
Stocks were mixed on Monday. The Russell 2000 iShares and S&P MidCap SPDR led with modest gains, while the Dow Diamonds and Nasdaq 100 ETF lagged with fractional losses. Consumer staples and technology were weak. Utilities and consumer discretionary were strong. The Utilities SPDR has been on a... READ MORE
The chart below shows the ratio of the S&P 500 Equal-Weight Index to the S&P 500 ($SPXEW:$SPX). Also known as the price relative, this ratio chart compares the performance of the S&P 500 Equal-Weight Index to the S&P 500. $SPXEW outperforms... READ MORE
Stocks continued higher in slow trading last week, which is pretty typical for yearend price action. The existing trend is up and prices extend in the direction of the existing trend, but in a much slower manner. Even though it is hard to read into low-volume price movements during a... READ MORE
The Regional Bank SPDR (KRE) is showing potential with a break above the flag trend line. Notice how the ETF surged and then corrected with the falling flag. This correction alleviated overbought conditions from mid November and the breakout signals a continuation of the prior surge. The indicator window shows... READ MORE
Programming note: I will be taking off the rest of the week and Art's Charts will return on Monday, December 29th. Have a great Christmas holiday! It was a mixed day on Wall Street with QQQ closing fractionally higher and IWM closing fractionally lower. Energy and healthcare led... READ MORE
December has been one mixed up month. The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) is down around 1.1%, the Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) is up around 2% and the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) is up .30%. We can also see mixed results when looking at the Performance for 10... READ MORE
Stocks started the week with selling pressure, but the bulls found their footing on Wednesday and produced a strong two-day surge. The Russell 2000 iShares (+3.65%) and Russell MicroCap iShares (+4.09%) led the charge and both have been outperforming the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) this month.... READ MORE
Chartists can improve their odds by looking for stocks that show relative strength and bullish price action. It is a two-pronged approach that has stood the test of time. I use relative strength to narrow the field and then look for charts with bullish signals. The first image shows a... READ MORE
Stocks continued higher with a broad advance that lifted most boats - again. The two-day surge in SPY is the biggest since 2011 and the two day decline in TLT is the largest since November 2013. Clearly, money moved out of the Treasury market and found its way into the... READ MORE
Stocks moved sharply higher with a broad advance that lifted most boats. The Russell MicroCap iShares (IWC) and Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) led the charge with 3+ percent moves. As noted on Monday-Tuesday, small-caps have been outperforming in December and small-cap breadth was holding up better than large-cap breadth. Relative... READ MORE
Cuba is in the news today on the announcement that the US and Cuba will start talks to normalize ties. What does Cuba have to do with a Technical Analysis website? Well....I was looking at the most actives on the Nasdaq and saw CUBA with a 40+ percent gain... READ MORE
The S&P 500 is less than 6% from its all time high and the Nasdaq 100 is less than 7% below its all time high. While the December decline looks dramatic on its own and the short-term trend is down, keep in mind that the major index ETFs... READ MORE
Even though correlation is not always causation, selling pressure extended in stocks and oil got the blame. Light Crude Futures (^CLF15) fell another 3+ percent and hit $55.02 on the low. Stocks, and oil, got an early bounce Monday morning, but buying pressure soon dissipated and prices turned lower.... READ MORE
QQQ broke pennant support on Friday and continued below 102 on Monday to break its support zone. The early December trend line and last week's highs mark resistance at 105. Apple continues to work its way lower and I am marking resistance at 112. ************************************************************** IWM is still holding... READ MORE
The S&P 500 was hit pretty hard over the last six days with all nine sectors losing ground. There were, however, some pockets of strength in the consumer discretionary. The Sector Market Carpet shows performance for the consumer discretionary sector since last Monday, 8-December. Over a dozen green... READ MORE
Stocks fell sharply last week as the S&P 500 suffered its largest weekly decline since May 2012. This was also the fifth weekly decline greater than 2.5% this year. Note that the prior four declines did not derail the bull market because the S&P 500... READ MORE
Stocks got good news with the employment report last Friday and the bounce was rather tepid. Stocks got more good news with retail sales on Thursday, but failed to hold the bounce. The inability to rise in the face of good news is negative. Perhaps the stock market is starting... READ MORE
LinkedIn broke out and surged to a new high in early November, and then corrected the last five weeks with a falling channel. This channel retraced 62% of the prior surge and almost filled the gap, but didn't. Throw in support from broken resistance in the 205 area,... READ MORE
There are plenty of reasons for Wednesday's sell off: plunging oil, weakness in junk bonds, bank exposure to the energy sector, Greek drama and the usual Euro stuff. One thing was clear: there were more sellers than buyers on Wednesday. I do not know the reasons behind every... READ MORE
Small-caps are starting to live up to their reputation for outperformance in December. Even though the month is far from finished, the PerfChart below shows the Russell 2000 and the S&P Small-Cap 600 with 1+ percent gains so far. In contrast, the other seven indices are actually down... READ MORE
The major index ETFs were mixed on Tuesday, but the leadership role flipped in favor of small-caps. DIA, SPY and QQQ moved lower, while IWM and IJR edged higher. Moreover, small-caps opened weak with the rest of the market and came roaring back once participants figured out that most small-caps... READ MORE
Stocks moved lower on Monday with small-caps and energy shares leading the way. The Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) declined over 1% and the SmallCap Energy ETF (PSCE) declined over 7%. Even though the energy sector accounts for just 3.5% of IWM, an oversize decline like 7.6% will definitely... READ MORE
Stocks got a big dose of good news on Friday as non-farm payrolls added over 300,000 for the second time this year. The employment report capped off a strong week for economic indicators. Despite a positive news week, stocks were quite flat and Friday's gains were contained.... READ MORE
There are two bullish seasonal patterns at work right now. First, stocks have shown a strong tendency to advance in December. Second, small-caps have shown a strong tendency to outperform large-caps in December. Over the last twenty years, the S&P 500 has risen 75% of the time and... READ MORE
The Russell MicroCap iShares (IWC) is leading the market higher on Friday and breaking above a triangle trend line. The P&F chart shows the ETF surging in October and then consolidating in November. The red A marks the beginning of October and the red B marks the beginning... READ MORE
The market went into a risk-off mode on Thursday with the Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) losing .48% and the 20+ YR T-Bond ETF (TLT) surging .84% ahead of today's employment report. Even though the surge in Treasuries shows a certain flight to safety, I do not blame the... READ MORE