Chart 1 shows Wal Mart surging 4% today to break out to a record high. That's a pleasant change for the world's largest retailer which has hardly been a market leaders. The WMT/SPX relative strength ratio (above chart) is just starting to rise after falling... READ MORE
If ever the bulls needed to see some stellar earnings results and/or positive forward guidance, it was about one month ago. From the late September high of 2019 to the mid-October low of 1821, the S&P 500 fell nearly 10% just as earnings season kicked off. During... READ MORE
* IWM continues to rally but Relative Strength action still lags. * Dollar diffusion indicator starting to turn down. * The Gold (GLD) experiences a strong outside bar on heavy volume. US Equities Chart 1 shows the Coppock Curve for the S&P 500 ($SPX) . This indicator was designed to identify major... READ MORE
The stock market is in a clear uptrend, but is short-term overbought after a big run the last four weeks. I am assuming that the trend is up because the S&P 500, S&P 500 Equal-Weight Index, Dow Industrials, Dow Transports, Nasdaq 100 and Nasdaq Composite recorded... READ MORE
Forgive me! I couldn't resist that cheesy headline stolen from the Quiet Riot album title. The headline is true, metals had a healthy day, as did other natural resource ETFs. I've highlighted notable ETFs right from our DecisionPoint ETF Tracker Report found in the DP Tracker... READ MORE
EQUAL-WEIGHT TECH AND CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY ETFS LEAD... Link for today's video. There are certainly pockets of weakness in the stock market, but the stock market as a whole shows enough strength to keep the bull going and there were some notable new highs this week. John Murphy wrote... READ MORE
The walls of advantage once held by institutional traders over individual investors have come crashing down. Emerging from the dust, there now marches an entire army of real advantages that individual investors hold over their formerly superior big brothers. In the worlds of fundamental information, charting tools and trading costs,... READ MORE
Wow...! What a difference a month makes .... I had lunch with Arthur Hill yesterday in Breda (the Netherlands) which is halfway where he lives in Belgium and where I live in the Netherlands (Amsterdam). Obviously the discussion was mainly about the freaky market move we have seen in October. At... READ MORE
Stocks finished very mixed on Thursday. DIA, QQQ and SPY finished with small gains, while IWM and IWC finished with modest losses. The Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) fell .85% and the Russell MicroCap iShares (IWC) was down 1.10%. Weakness in small-caps is the reason many breadth indicators were negative... READ MORE
WAL-MART SHARES EXPLODE... Chart 1 shows Wal Mart surging 4% today to break out to a record high. That's a pleasant change for the world's largest retailer which has hardly been a market leaders. The WMT/SPX relative strength ratio (above chart) is just starting to... READ MORE
The 20+ YR T-Bond ETF (TLT) went ballistic in mid October with a surge above 125 and then sharply reversed with a close below 122 the next day. The ETF has since worked its way lower and volatility has seriously contracted. Notice that Bollinger BandWidth is at its lowest level... READ MORE
It was another lackluster day, but there were some notable pockets of strength. Small-caps perked up as the Russell 2000 iShares (+.45%) and S&P SmallCap iShares (+.68%) led the major index ETFs. The gains may be incremental, but they were gains and they were the leaders. The SmallCap... READ MORE
Price continues to consolidate. The market seems to be disinterested in a breakdown. The purpose of the DecisionPoint Daily Update is to quickly review the day's action, internal condition, and Trend Model status of the broad market (S&P 500), the nine SPDR Sectors, the U.S.... READ MORE
FOREIGNERS WILL BE ABLE TO BUY SHANGHAI STOCKS ... Starting next Monday, foreign investors will be able for the first time to buy and sell stocks listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. More than 500 mainland stocks (previously unavailable to foreign investors) will be traded... READ MORE
The top chart shows sector performance since the beginning of September. The bottom chart, from factset.com, shows the number of times companies in these sectors cited oil in their earnings calls (from 1-Sep to 6-Nov). Oil fell around 10% from mid June to late August and around 20% from... READ MORE
Trading was rather lackluster on Tuesday as the major index ETFs finished with fractional gains, and I do mean fractional. QQQ gained .31%, SPY rose .10% and IWM advanced .07%. Buying pressure is waning, but we have yet to see any significant selling pressure. Of note, the high-low range for... READ MORE
Tesla (TSLA) gapped down and fell sharply in early October, but ultimately held support from the July low and rising 200-day moving average. The stock moved higher the last four weeks and surged above the September trend line with a 3+ percent gain on Tuesday. Also notice that Aroon Up... READ MORE
IJR AND QQQ WORK THEIR WAY HIGHER... Link for today's video. Last week I featured the S&P SmallCap iShares (IJR) and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) because both were holding their gaps and consolidating. After strong buying pressure and a big surge, buying pressure and selling... READ MORE
The December E-mini S&P 500 (^ESZ14) hit another new high with another incremental step. Since the close above 2000 at the end of October, the gains have been rather incremental and upside momentum has slowed. Is this bearish? Buying pressure may not be as strong as it was... READ MORE
We've been hearing how Japan's latest foray into money printing has been such a great help for their stock market, but it is always best to see if the chart matches the story. After rising strongly off the late-2012 low, the Nikkei moved sideways for over... READ MORE
The stock market bottomed in mid October and then surged over the last 18 days. Chartists can find the leaders (and laggards) for this period by setting the PerfChart for 18 days. Simply double click the date tab and enter a number. The PerfChart below shows all nine sectors and... READ MORE
HOME CONSTRUCTION ISHARES MAKES A BREAK... Link for today's video. Chart 1 shows the Home Construction iShares (ITB) reversing an eight month downtrend with a surge above its August-September highs. This is the first higher high of 2014. Notice that this is a weekly chart extending back two... READ MORE
The December E-mini S&P 500 (^ESZ14) hit a new high intraday, but closed slightly lower and formed a doji on the day. These candlesticks signal indecision, which is caused by a standoff between buying and selling pressure. The current upswing is quite amazing because the emini has been... READ MORE
As I wrote my DP Daily Update today, I noticed that our intermediate-term indicators have joined our short-term indicators in very overbought territory. You'll note from the previous tops, this generally means the market is ready to correct, pull back or at the very least consolidate so that... READ MORE
IJR AND QQQ CONSOLIDATE AFTER GAPS... Link for today's video. The S&P SmallCap iShares (IJR) and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) gapped up on Friday and held these gaps all week. Even though these ETFs stalled and did not continue higher, the gaps are holding and... READ MORE
Read the Market Wizard books. These remarkable investors use proven off-the-shelf tools and indicators which they then assemble into whatever profitable methodology that they’re most comfortable with. What they don’t do is construct black boxes with proprietary indicators and complex algorithms and then proceed to make billions. Yet... READ MORE
And now for the employment report. This week's economic reports were positive, the ADP Report was above 200K and initial claims continue to fall. The economic cup is clearly half full and this bodes well for today's employment report. Stocks have perhaps already priced in some... READ MORE
POWERSHARES U.S. DOLLAR BULLISH ETF BREAKS OUT TO THE UPSIDE ... The U.S. dollar rally continues. The line on top of Chart 1 shows the U.S. Dollar Cash Index (USD) trading at the highest level in four years. The main chart shows the PowerShares US Dollar Bullish ETF... READ MORE
* Short-term market indicators are still bullish. * Stock/bond ratio reaches a critical point. * Yen completes a 28-year top against the dollar. US Equities Throughout 2013 and for most of 2014 every peak in the S&P was confirmed by the NYSE Composite ($NYA) . You can see that from the... READ MORE
The London Tube is famous for its automated announcements reminding commuters to "mind the gap" between the train and the platform (don't fall in). QQQ has a gap that we should also mind. Notice how the ETF opened above 101 and closed above 101 the last... READ MORE
Stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday with the major index ETFs posting modest gains. SPY advanced .63% and the Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) added just .18%. The energy sector rebounded with a big move as oil got a small bounce. Devon (DVN) and EOG Resources (OEG) exceeded their late October... READ MORE
The market was up all day making new all-time highs, but still spent the majority of the day moving sideways. The purpose of the DecisionPoint Daily Update is to quickly review the day's action, internal condition, and Trend Model status of the broad market (S&P 500)... READ MORE
After I did the research for my book “Candlestick Charting Explained,” originally called “Candlepower” in 1991, I realized that many were looking at patterns incorrectly. This included candle patterns and classical chart patterns. This was first noticed in a few academic papers attempting to show that these patterns did not... READ MORE
The S&P 500 AD Line ($SPXADP) confirmed the new high in the S&P 500 by hitting a new high of its own. The chart below shows the AD Line holding its early August low in mid October and surging above its early September high on Friday.... READ MORE
Stocks were hit with pockets of selling pressure on Tuesday. The consumer discretionary, energy and materials sectors led the way lower. Consumer staples, financials and healthcare held up relatively well. Relative weakness in the consumer discretionary sector caused the XLY:XLP ratio to break down and turn negative for stocks... READ MORE
Crude oil has dropped below $80.00 and is currently trading at about $76.50. We use the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) as a surrogate for crude because it incorporates the cost of trading the futures contracts, and provides a simple vehicle for trading crude. At the end... READ MORE
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY SECTOR WEIGHS ON STOCKS... Link for today's video. The consumer discretionary led the market in 2013, but has lagged the market this year and the price relative just broke to a new low. Chart 1 shows the Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY) peaking just below the early... READ MORE
Today we will start with a short-term look at the risk on-off dynamics in the stock market right now. Note that I am only referring to the stock market. Oil, gold, the Dollar and the Euro do not fit into this equation right now. I am using five things to... READ MORE
The Relative Rotation Graph below shows the members of the Dow Jones Industrials index with that same index acting as the benchmark. As all members of the benchmark universe are present on the plot we call this a "closed universe". Open and Closed RRG-charts On a RRG holding... READ MORE
Chartists can get a good idea of market conditions just by looking at the predefined technical alerts page. Today's alerts are at the top and users can view past alerts by scrolling down the page. Today, we can see several major indices and sector ETFs hitting multi-year highs,... READ MORE