When money begins rotating to defense in a big way, I look for topping patterns in the market. But when we're in the midst of a full-fledged bull market - as we are now - I'd much rather search for stocks in bullish continuation patterns. That brings... READ MORE
As a stock market historian, if there's one thing that really annoys me, it's the talking heads saying to "go away in May". While the May through October period is clearly less bullish than its November through April counterpart, there are loads of reasons... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, July 13, 2017 Financials (XLF, +0.60%) rebounded to lead the market action on Thursday, in anticipation of large bank earnings scheduled to be reported this morning. The Dow Jones U.S. Banks Index ($DJUSBK) remains in a strong technical pattern, but has room to the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 13, 2017 Fed Chair Janet Yellen provided the Fed's semiannual monetary policy to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday morning, just prior to the opening of the stock market and both the bond market and stock market loved what it heard. The... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 11, 2017 Only two of nine sectors - energy (XLE, +0.54%) and technology (XLK, +0.22%) were able to finish in positive territory on Tuesday. Given that overall weakness, it was interesting to see that only one of our major indices lost ground (S&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 10, 2017 The NASDAQ and S&P 500 rallied on Monday, posting gains of 0.38% and 0.09%, respectively. The small cap Russell 2000 index was easily the worst performing major index, losing 0.52% on the session. Despite the weakness, the Russell... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 7, 2017 Dow Jones component McDonalds Corp (MCD) jumped more than 2% on Friday, extending an already strong 2017 with another all-time high closing breakout. It helped to lead a strong restaurants & bars ($DJUSRU) industry, which rose 1.26%. That, in turn, helped... READ MORE
Higher treasury yields ($TNX) are feared in some parts of the stock market like utilities (XLU), but not in others - especially in banking ($DJUSBK) and life insurance ($DJUSIL) where profits tend to soar during periods of rising interest rates. The recent spike in the 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) from... READ MORE
Special Announcement Greg Schnell and I will be co-hosting the latest StockCharts Outlook webinar tomorrow, July 8th at 11am EST. Please join us as we discuss what went right and wrong during the first half of 2017 and where we see the market heading in the second half. Have... READ MORE
Bull markets are comprised of rotating sector strength and bullishness. On a relative basis, healthcare (XLV) was a laggard during 2009 and 2010 before outperforming in a major way from 2011 through 2015. The sector saw relative weakness for nearly two years beginning in mid-2015, but has now resumed... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 5, 2017 Crude oil prices ($WTIC) tumbled on Wednesday and that put an abrupt end to the recent strength in energy shares (XLE, -2.03%). It's also one reason why I need to see the XLE downtrend end before I'd grow... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 3, 2017 Energy (XLE, +1.93%) had another strong day as crude oil ($WTIC) surged above $47 per barrel and tested its 50 day SMA for the first time in over a month. The XLE has overhead resistance issues using multiple time frames, the first... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 30, 2017 We once again witnessed market bifurcation with both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 rising slightly, while the more aggressive NASDAQ and Russell 2000 finished with absolute and relative weakness. The Dow Jones received a big lift from Nike (NKE), which... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Semiconductors Index ($DJUSSC) is an extremely volatile index. When this index is trending higher, there aren't too many better places to be invested. But when the fire goes out, you want to run, not walk, for the exits. So where are we now,... READ MORE
It's generally not a great idea to wait until after a stock or index breaks out to consider short-term trades. It would seem somewhat obvious to instead plan for those breakouts by watching patterns develop and keeping an eye on volume. So let's do exactly... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 29, 2017 That's exactly what it's felt like recently. Financials (XLF) have easily been the best performing sector over the past week, rising nearly 3%, while energy (XLE) is the only other sector in positive territory as crude oil ($WTIC) has... READ MORE
The stubbornness of treasury buyers has kept a lid on treasury yields and, as a result, banks ($DJUSBK) have struggled to determine which direction they should move. Well.....this morning's reaction to an upwardly-revised GDP number (TNX up 7 basis points to 2.29% at last check)... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 28, 2017 All of our major indices finished higher on Wednesday with the small cap Russell 2000 and tech-laden NASDAQ indices leading the charge with 1.55% and 1.43% gains, respectively. We saw solid participation across the board, however, with the Dow Jones... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 27, 2017 The relative sector leader for over a year - technology (XLK, -1.64%) - took another beating on Tuesday as selling ramped up for a second consecutive session. All industry groups within technology took a hit, but semiconductors ($DJUSSC) and internet stocks ($DJUSNS) took the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 26, 2017 The Volatility Index ($VIX) is a signal of what the market expects in terms of volatility over the near-term (1 to 2 months). While some look at the current reading below 10 as a signal of extreme complacency that will result in... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 23, 2017 It's been a rough ride for crude oil ($WTIC) over the past several months and the steady march lower has taken oil back to test its November low just above $42 per barrel. It hasn't been a robust advance... READ MORE
Biotechnology stocks ($DJUSBT) were the second best performing industry group last week, trailing on renewable energy ($DWCREE). Both groups appear poised to continue their rally based on their longer-term weekly technical outlook. Therefore, it's probably not a bad idea to look at stocks in these groups that... READ MORE
BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), like the overall biotech industry ($DJUSBT), has struggled for the past 18 months to clear overhead price resistance. But over the past couple trading sessions, we have seen one biotech company after another clear resistance on strong volume and accelerate. It appears that BMRN is awaiting its... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 21, 2017 Biotechs ($DJUSBT) are the "semiconductors of healthcare". When they move, they move! Healthcare (XLV, +1.27%) was easily the best performing sector on Wednesday as the DJUSBT soared 3.43%. Unless we see a major reversal between today and tomorrow, we&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 20, 2017 Healthcare (XLV, +0.33%) was one of just two sectors - utilities (XLU, +0.06%) was the other - to rise on Tuesday as much of Monday's gains was relinquished. The good news, however, is that biotechs ($DJUSBT) made a significant breakout on... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 19, 2017 Technology (XLK, +1.48%), healthcare (XLV, +1.04%) and financials (XLF, +1.03%) led a broad-based rally on Monday that included seven of the nine sectors. Only energy (XLE, -0.63%) and the defensive utilities (XLU, -0.33%) failed to participate in... READ MORE
Special Announcement At 4:30pm EST this afternoon, just after the U.S. stock market closes, I'll be joining John Hopkins, President of EarningsBeats.com, for a special 90 minute presentation. John will discuss the benefits of trading companies that have reported strong quarterly revenues and earnings (ahead... READ MORE
It's always nice to go back to the basics of technical analysis. Broken resistance becomes support. That's currently the case with Cerner Corp (CERN) where the stock recently cleared price resistance just above 65.00 and, with recent profit taking, we've seen a return... READ MORE
History tells us many things. One of the lessons is that making money on the long side is much more difficult during the summer months. Why? It's rather simple. On the S&P 500 since 1950, here are the annualized returns by calendar months over the summer:... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 15, 2017 There's been marked improvement in the relative strength of industrials (XLI, +0.60%) in recent weeks and that was on full display Thursday. Despite all of our major indices finishing lower, the XLI managed to end the session in positive territory... READ MORE
One look at the 10 year treasury yield's ($TNX) decline the past several months provides proof that the bond market isn't exactly agreeing with the Federal Reserve's stated position that they see economic improvement in the months ahead. The Fed announced on Wednesday that... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 14, 2017 The FOMC concluded its two day meeting on Wednesday afternoon and, for the most part, followed its prior script. They stuck to their previous plan to raise interest rates for a third time in six months and maintain their forecast for another rate... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Technology (XLK, +0.72%) rebounded after two days of brutal selling. It occurred after a hammer printed off a 50 day SMA test on Monday. That was a relief for many market participants as the XLK has been the undisputed sector leader for... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 12, 2017 U.S. indices fell in unison on Monday and the tech-laden NASDAQ led the action, but after Friday's bloodbath, it certainly could have been worse. Based on overall action Friday and Monday, it appears to be a healthy rotation from... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 9, 2017 They say a picture can say a thousand words so before I further discuss the carnage from Friday, take a look at this performance chart of NASDAQ 100 components: Several of the best performing stocks (based on SCTR scores) were absolutely hammered on... READ MORE
If you're someone that finds great investments among the high SCTR (StockCharts Technical Rank) stocks, you probably enjoy better than average returns most of the time. However, Friday was not one of those times. The NASDAQ 100, clearly the best performing index among our major indices in 2017,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 8, 2017 Small caps were the clear and undeniable leader on Thursday as the Russell 2000 gained 1.36% while the NASDAQ was the second best performing index at +0.39%. I posted yesterday in this blog that the Russell 2000 needed to clear 1420... READ MORE
Over the past week, it's been about an even split among sectors in terms of winners and losers. Industrials (XLI) is one sector that's been slightly lower over the past week, but technically things still look very bright in this space. Broken price resistance generally becomes... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 7, 2017 Crude oil ($WTIC) took a dive on Wednesday as inventories rose unexpectedly, causing a bit of panic among traders. Inventory supplies had fallen for eight straight weeks and traders were anticipating another drop of 3.5 million barrels. Instead, at 10:30am EST,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 6, 2017 Energy (XLE, +1.18) was easily the best performing sector on Tuesday as materials (XLB, +0.06%) was the only other sector to finish in positive territory - barely. Over the last five trading days, the XLE has printed a hollow candle (closing price... READ MORE