Setting Short-term Support for the big 3 // Short-term Breadth Remains Bullish // Next Two Days Could Hold the Key for Breadth // Equal-weight, Small-caps and Mid-caps Take the Lead // Consumer Discretionary and Retail Outperform // Junk Bonds Get a Bounce // Bonds, Gold and the Yen // Rising Wedges in XLI and XLB // Stocks of... READ MORE
Market Recap for February 24, 2016 After very early strength in the U.S. dollar index ($USD) on Wednesday to challenge the 98 level, the greenback fell sharply, allowing for a very quick recovery in energy (XLE) and materials (XLB) stocks and that propelled our major indices into positive territory... READ MORE
SHORT-TERM TREND STILL UNCERTAIN... Stocks opened lower with oil today, but are trying to stabilize with the commodity in afternoon trading. Chart 1, however, shows a somewhat neutral picture for the market's short-term trend. After successfully testing its January low earlier this month, the S&P 500... READ MORE
Five stocks dominate the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) and traders should keep a close eye on these when trading or investing in QQQ. Apple (10.97%), Alphabet (9.34%), Microsoft (8.5%), Amazon (5.39%) and Facebook (4.98%) account for almost 40% of QQQ. After Facebook, the next biggest... READ MORE
Market Recap for February 24, 2016 Energy (XLE) and materials (XLB) tumbled on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar ($USD) continued its recent rally. The greenback rose just fractionally yesterday but it followed a very strong rally on Monday and closed above its 20 day EMA for a second consecutive... READ MORE
In the first few minutes of the trading day, a great deal of overnight emotion is captured. Sometimes special events cause chaos. For example, on the New York Stock Exchange it may take several minutes for the market maker (used to be a specialist) to open a stock for trading... READ MORE
I recently was reading John Murphy's book, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets (A MUST read and available in the StockCharts.com Store) and I found a VERY timely quote that I'd like to share: Until 2000, we had a lot of people who were day-trading.... READ MORE
* Intermediate rally/consolidation for US equities still on the menu * Test of the lows is likely first * Emerging markets continue to look vulnerable * Gold showing strong technical signs The Intermediate Rally/trading range The intermediate rally possibilities, which I have been discussing for several weeks, is still a probability. That’... READ MORE
SPY Hits Moment of Truth // %Above 20-day EMA Becomes Overbought // Oil is Still in a Downtrend // Reviewing the PPO Strategy // Reconciling the PPO with the Price Chart // Webinar Preview SPY Hits Moment of Truth It was another day and another gap as SPY closed at its highest level since early... READ MORE
Special Note I'll be joining John Hopkins of EarningsBeats.com just after the market closes today for a lively discussion of analyzing both long and short candidates during a tumultuous trading period like the one we're experiencing now. It's FREE and will be held... READ MORE
DOW IS THE FIRST TO CLEAR FEBRUARY HIGH ... A strong Monday stock rally pushed U.S. stock indexes right up against initial overhead barriers at their early February peak and 50-day averages. Chart 1 shows the Dow Industrials being the first to exceed its February high. It is still, however,... READ MORE
The S&P 500 is setting up for its first test as it nears resistance in the 1950 area. The chart below shows the index below the falling 200-day SMA and the 50-day SMA below the 200-day SMA. The overall trend here is clearly down, but the ~6% rally... READ MORE
Market Recap for February 19, 2016 The U.S. market was mixed on Friday with the more aggressive Russell 2000 and NASDAQ leading the action with gains of 0.53% and 0.38%, respectively, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Dow Jones was down fractionally at... READ MORE
Breadth Surge Falls Short of Bullish Signal // Another Gap to Mind // Stocks of Interest (CHKP, FB, SYK, UNH) //// The long-term evidence remains bearish, but the short-term evidence turned bullish with the reversals and gaps in mid February. As noted in Friday's commentary, I use a three-prong approach to... READ MORE
Just about one year ago, StockCharts.com unveiled a "dividend indicator" to allow you to plot the history of dividends on a particular U.S. or Canadian stock. For those who are income-oriented, it's a great way to review the history of dividends that a company... READ MORE
I don't want to become a Johnny One-Note by reporting on gold two weeks in a row, but gold continues to attract my attention. Last week $GOLD capped off a strong rally when it broke decisively above a long-term declining tops line. Since it was very overbought, we... READ MORE
Hello Fellow ChartWatchers! I know, I know. I've shown the same chart again and again recently. Well, apologies in advance, but here it is one more time: I'm showing it again because I really think it can keep you grounded in the face of emotional short-term... READ MORE
From a short-term trading perspective, last week's rally was predictable. Positive divergences flashed all over the equity map on daily charts - globally, domestically, and within sectors, industry groups, and individual stocks. So it was certainly an opportunity for the bulls to regain control of the action in... READ MORE
Many of my readers' and viewers' questions remind me of the Whitney Houston song, "How Will I Know?". With the DecisionPoint Scoreboards starting to move "green", it begs the question, "Is the market on its way back up?" I believe I answered... READ MORE
One of the widely watched gauges of market direction is theNYSE Bullish Percent Index ($BPNYA). That index measures the percent of NYSE stocks that are in point & figure uptrends. Chart 1 shows a point & figure version of that index. [P&F charts show alternating columns of Xs... READ MORE
Our primary focus for a long time at EarningsBeats.com has been on those companies that beat earnings expectations and have strong charts. The reason being that companies with strong numbers and strong charts provide superior reward to risk trading opportunities. But we've learned lately that companies that... READ MORE
It has been a rough year for most of the stock market with seven of the nine sector SPDRs down year-to-date. The Consumer Staples SPDR (XLP) is up .69% and the Utilities SPDR (XLU) is up a whopping 6.75%. Among the seven negative sectors, the Industrials SPDR (XLI) is... READ MORE
NYSE COMPOSITE INDEX TESTS RESISTANCE... Stocks had their best week of the year. While that's encouraging, they'll have to do a lot more to signal that the global correction/bear market has run its course. I'm focusing on the NYSE Composite Index (NYA) today... READ MORE
In trading and speculation we are all on the clock, the market clock. At times the market clock spins quickly and at other times it crawls. When a trend is unleashed time seems to move effortlessly. Time slows down when the market makes no progress while in a long drawn... READ MORE
Make no mistake about it: these are internet days and news circles the globe at the speed of light. Couple that with the fact that Wall Street is the world’s most sophisticated disinformation machine ever devised and you’ll appreciate why I believe technical analysis is an individual investor’... READ MORE
Three Prong Approach // Major Index Trends Remain Down // Breadth Indicators remain Net Bearish // Some Risk Indicators Stabilize, but have yet to Turn Up // Staples and Utilities Still Holding Up // XLP Struggles since Market Peak // XLU Benefits from Two Negative Correlations // A Bounce within a Downtrend for XLU // XLK Battles Support... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, February 18, 2016 The keys to the sustainability of the recent rally will be twofold: (1) will there be enough buying pressure to clear key resistance levels as they're approached and tested? and (2) will there be enough rotation to aggressive areas of the... READ MORE
Wal-Mart (WMT) based for more than a decade beginning in 2000 before it finally made a significant technical breakout in 2012. WMT then nearly tripled over the next three years before stumbling over the past year. Perhaps the biggest question is whether the selling has ended and WMT is now... READ MORE
Green means "go", right? Well in terms of the DecisionPoint Scoreboards, not necessarily. The DecisionPoint Scoreboards act as a "finger in the wind" or as we like to say, "windsock", to see which direction and speed markets are moving in right now. It'... READ MORE
Putting the 3-day Surge into Perspective // The Concept of the Zweig Breadth Thrust // Don’t forget Nasdaq Stocks // A Weight of the Evidence Approach to Breadth Thrusts // Measuring Money Flow Thrusts with AD Volume Percent // Final Confirmation with High-Low Percent // The Bottom Line //// Putting the 3-day Surge into Perspective A... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 17, 2016 Energy stocks (XLE) soared yesterday, rising 3.28% to easily lead all sectors. Eight of the nine sectors finished higher with only utilities (XLU) coming up short. Leading energy has been the resurgence of coal stocks ($DJUSCL) as the DJUSCL is setting up... READ MORE
* Five days of Armageddon * Does the British market still lead the US market Five Days of Armageddon For some time, I have been drawing your attention to the fact that many intermediate indicators have been flashing buy signals that even in primary bear markets have triggered some kind of a... READ MORE
Taiwan Semiconductor is breaking out of a bullish pattern with good volume and the stock is showing relative strength. The price chart shows a cup-with-handle forming from December to mid-February. This is a bullish continuation pattern that was popularized by William O'Neil. There are three resistance levels marked... READ MORE
S&P 500 NEARS TEST OF FEBRUARY HIGH ... My weekend message suggested that stocks had put in a short-term bottom. We'll find out soon enough if last week's bottom was even more significant. Chart 1 shows the S&P 500 Index nearing a test... READ MORE
SPY Heads for First Retracement // A Look at the 2011 Double Bottom Bounce // QQQ Forges an Island Reversal // Energy, Materials and Industrials Lead Short-term Bounce // Charting the Key Stocks in XLE, XLB and XLI // XOM, CVX, SLB, DD, DOW, MON, GE, HON, MMM //// Mind the Gaps SPY followed through on... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 16, 2016 Tuesday produced what arguably was the best daily performance for U.S. equities in 2016. It wasn't the biggest percentage gain, but the behavior and leadership was outstanding and sets up the market for further short-term gains. Yesterday's leadership,... READ MORE
This is a complementary article to Secular Bears that I wrote on May 14, 2015. To be perfectly honest (that is how someone usually leads into telling a lie) I planned on doing this article shortly after the first one and totally forgot. Secular Bulls and Secular Bears is terminology... READ MORE
Keep the Long-term Trends in Mind // A Candlestick Reversal for SPY // XLP Triggers Bullish PPO Signal // Brent versus WTI // Webinar Preview //// Keep the Long-term Trends in Mind The long-term trends are down for SPY, QQQ and IWM, but a short-term reversal pattern last week and a gap on Monday could... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 12, 2016 The Dow Jones U.S. Banks Index rallied nearly 6% on Friday, a stunning reversal with a positive divergence indicative that the rally may be closer to starting than finishing. The entire financial sector rallied with the benchmark ETF (XLF) gaining 4.22%... READ MORE
Since the December lows, $GOLD has moved up +20%, and the advance this month has been nearly vertical (as in parabolic). At this point there are some signs that price needs to consolidate or pull back. Looking at the last three year's price pattern, we can see it... READ MORE