Selling pressure was extremely broad in Friday with all sectors declining and more than ninety percent of stocks in the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 declining. While this kind of broad selling pressure creates a short-term oversold condition, it also... READ MORE
Signs of a correction were building for some time and it now appears that the long awaited corrective period is here. The S&P 500, in particular, is following the script from January 2018 quite closely. After a steady advance from October to December, signs of excess started appearing... READ MORE
The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) broke out of a pennant formation last week and then fell sharply this week. This puts price back in the pennant and near its make or break level. Flags and pennants are short-term continuation patterns that form after a sharp move. Bullish versions represent the... READ MORE
The stock market started its latest run to infinity (and beyond) in mid August and the 20+ Yr Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) just happened to peak a week or so later. Stocks and bonds were largely on the same page from February to August as both moved higher. Correlation changed... READ MORE
Ten of the eleven sector SPDRs are positive over the last three months. The Real Estate SPDR (XLRE) is the only sector sporting a loss (~.75%), but I am not concerned with relative weakness because the price chart looks bullish overall. Note that XLRE was the leading sector in early... READ MORE
2019 was quite the year with many stocks moving sharply higher from January to July-August. In particular, several Technology stocks moved higher during this period and then corrected into October. We can see this pattern reflected in the Equal-Weight Technology ETF (RYT) as it advanced over 40% and then corrected... READ MORE
2019 was a year with lots of distractions, and yet the S&P 500 recorded 52-week highs in six of the last nine months. The index surged 17.7% the first four months and recorded its first 52-week high in late April. It then finished strong with a new... READ MORE
A theme is a fundamental trend that could influence a stock's price in the coming months, or even years. As powerful as themes seem, they are still secondary to price action. There are many forces driving price movements and we cannot be expected to know them all. In... READ MORE
The Gold SPDR (GLD) and the Gold Miners ETF (GDX) have been trending lower and lagging the broader market since September, but breadth indicators show signs of strength within the Gold Miners ETF. Today we will examine four breadth indicators and analyze the price chart for GDX. While breadth can... READ MORE
We are seeing breakouts and new highs galore in the stock market. Does this sound the all clear? Hardly. Investors waiting for the all clear will probably be waiting a long time. Moreover, the "all clear" could even mark the top, because that's just the way... READ MORE
Chartists looking for winning stocks should start with leading sectors and industry groups. Having a sector or industry tailwind can greatly improve the odds for a winning trade or investment. Programming note: There is a special announcement at the end of this commentary. Looking at the sector charts and sector... READ MORE
As noted in ChartWatchers this weekend, the Mobile Payments ETF (IPAY) came to life in November with a 7% gain, which was almost twice the gain in the S&P 500 SPDR (+3.62%). IPAY was lagging in September and October, but is now leading the market as the... READ MORE
Black Friday weekend is here and the holiday shopping season is just getting started. While I have no clue which retailers will be the big winners or losers this season, the mobile payments industry is likely to be a big winner. Mobile payments are expected to exceed $300 billion this... READ MORE
Several finance-related ETFs and stocks broke out with big moves from early October to early November. Many of these then stalled over the last two weeks and this rest could be the pause that refreshes. Today we will look at performance for the finance-related ETFs and the bull flags taking... READ MORE
The S&P 500 SPDR and Nasdaq 100 ETF recorded new all time highs this past week, while the S&P MidCap 400 SPDR hit a new 52-week high in November. Sounds bullish, but the S&P SmallCap 600 SPDR and Russell 2000 ETF are still well... READ MORE
The number of stocks making new highs has been a lagging link in the breadth indicators this year. While the S&P 500 trades at a new high, the number of new highs within the index has yet to exceed 100 and get back to the levels seen in... READ MORE
The character of the stock market changed over the last six to seven weeks as the market took on a more offensive tone. Don't get me wrong. The stock market was already in bull mode and the S&P 500 has been above its 200-day SMA since... READ MORE
The Russell 2000 ETF is finally showing signs of an uptrend with the first higher-low/higher-high sequence in six months. The chart below shows the Russell 1000 ETF (IWB), the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) and the Russell Microcap ETF (IWC) to compare highs and lows. Chartists can use this technique... READ MORE
The new high parade continued this week with the S&P 500 SPDR and four sector SPDRs hitting new highs. The Technology SPDR (XLK), Industrials SPDR (XLI), Finance SPDR (XLF) and Materials SPDR (XLB) recorded new 52-week highs. The Healthcare SPDR (XLV) recorded a new high for 2019, but... READ MORE
The Nasdaq AD Line is not keeping pace with the Nasdaq Composite, but this is not bearish for the Nasdaq or the market as a whole. Note that the Nasdaq hit a new high in July and again on November 1st, even though the Nasdaq AD Line has been falling... READ MORE
The Biotech ETF (IBB) is making a bullish statement with recent developments in momentum, volume and trend. IBB is also outperforming its counter part, the Biotech SPDR (XBI), over the last two months. The chart below shows IBB surging around 10% from the early October low to the current high.... READ MORE
The market as a whole is not firing on all cylinders, but that is not really important. What, then, is important? We cannot expect a perfectly bullish stock market and rising tide that lifts all boats, as was the case in 2013 and 2017. Instead, we need to know which... READ MORE
Bullish continuation patterns are my favorite patterns when it comes to stocks and ETFs. As the name suggests, bullish continuation patterns, when confirmed, signal a continuation of the prior trend. Furthermore, because it is a "bullish" continuation, it means the prior trend was up and that trend is... READ MORE
The Industrials SPDR (XLI) and Finance SPDR (XLF) are two of the big six sectors in the S&P 500 and both are moving in the right direction: up. The Industrials sector accounts for 9.32% of the S&P 500, while the Finance sector accounts for 13.... READ MORE
While the S&P 500 and large-caps hold up well, small-caps and mid-caps continue to trade mixed. This suggest that the average stock is trading mixed, some up and some down. Even though we are not in a bear market environment, stock picking is challenging right now and we... READ MORE
The lack of new highs may seem like a concern, but one cannot talk about new highs without also looking at new lows because there are two sides to the story. The S&P 500 is within 2% of an all time high and there were just 28 new... READ MORE
The S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) hit a new high in July and then moved into a trading range the last few months. Momentum turned down during this trading range and this is perfectly normal during a consolidation. Today will look at a weekly chart pattern taking shape and... READ MORE
Today's report on StockCharts is short because the full report can be found at my new website, TrendInvestorPro.com. More details below. For now, I will leave you with the Core Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) as its technical picture improves. The chart for IEMG looks similar to the... READ MORE
Follow Through Day or Not? Stocks started Friday with a bang as the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) gapped above 296 and held this gap throughout the day, despite a sell off in the final 30 minutes. Does this count as a "follow through" day? It is... READ MORE
It is time for another round of weekend stock setups. Last weekend I featured seven semiconductor stocks and these are performing well. Two weeks ago I featured a hodgepodge of stocks with mixed results. The S&P 500 is trending higher, the Index and Sector Breadth Models are net... READ MORE
My assumptions and biases are based on the bigger trend because it is the dominant force at work. When the trend is up, I view the cup as half full and expect more bullish resolutions than bearish resolutions. This means I favor bullish setups over bearish setups, successful support tests... READ MORE
The goal of this commentary is to cut through the day-to-day noise and focus on price action that actually matters. Noise can be in the form of news or random price fluctuations. Either way, we are often better off when we filter the noise and focus on what really matters.... READ MORE
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 remain in good shape, the Russell 2000 remains in bad shape and the S&P MidCap 400 is caught in the middle. I am not going to read too much into relative and absolute weakness in small-caps because the Russell 2000... READ MORE
Semiconductors are holding up relatively well over the last few weeks. While many stocks and ETFs broke their August lows, the Semiconductor SPDR (XSD) held its August low and the Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) did not even test its August lows. Today we will compare and contrast the two ETFs and... READ MORE
Today we are going to show how 52-week highs and lows can be used to track long-term and short-term trends in the S&P 500. Full disclosure: this is not the holy grail. It is one indicator that can be used in conjunction with others to keep you on... READ MORE
We will start with the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) and the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP), two versions of the same 500 or so stocks. These are the most important benchmarks to watch when it comes to the broader market. As such, I will use these... READ MORE
Stocks in the Industrials and Finance sectors were hit especially hard on Tuesday with XLI and XLF falling more than 2%. The Technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors held up better than the broader market by falling less than 1%. Nevertheless, these four offensive sectors were down on the day. The... READ MORE
Several of the Sunday Setups were hit hard on Tuesday as selling pressure hit the Finance, Industrials and Materials sectors quite hard. Five of the eleven stocks came from these sectors (PFG, USB, HON, FAST and PKG). Nine of the Eleven are down over the last two days. KMX and... READ MORE
After running some scans, scrolling through the charts and filtering the setups, I came up with a dozen stocks to watch for next week, and perhaps beyond. All are above their rising 200-day SMAs and in uptrends of some sort. These stocks are also showing short-term relative strength. Eight of... READ MORE
Today I will expand and update the key breadth indicators for the S&P 500. Notably, I added two more early warning indicators to the mix. They have yet to trigger, but these added indicators will give us something to watch going forward. I will also update the charts... READ MORE