Stocks rebounded across the board with the hardest hit groups getting the biggest pops. The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) led the way with a 1.38% bounce. Eight of nine sectors were up with energy leading the way on the heels of a big oversold bounce in crude. The utilities... READ MORE
GOLD ISHARES NEAR TEST OF FEBRUARY HIGH... The upturn in gold that started a month ago remains intact. Today's upside gap puts the yellow metal in position to challenge its February high. Odds for an upside breakout look good. Gold has a lot going for it at the... READ MORE
The PerfChart below shows three month performance for two chip makers (Intel and AMD), two PC-related companies (Dell and Hewlett Packard) and mister softy (Microsoft). Only Microsoft is up during this period, and just barely. The others are having a really difficult time, even with the S&P 500... READ MORE
Stocks continued lower with modest losses in the major index ETFs. The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) led the way lower with a .81% decline. Eight of nine sectors moved lower with energy and technology leading the way. The defensive sectors held up the best with the utilities sector providing the... READ MORE
AA Returns to Breakout for Big Test. AMX Firms with Good Upside Volume. Plus DLTR, MMM, MSFT, NVDA This commentary and charts-of-interest are designed to stimulate thinking. This analysis is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or sell short any security (stock ETF or otherwise). We all need to... READ MORE
The battle for the breakout is on as the Metals & Mining SPDR (XME) declined to broken resistance and formed a big spinning top. These candlesticks show serious indecision. XME broke resistance in early September and is now trying to decide if this breakout is worth holding or not. Watch... READ MORE
SMALL-CAPS AND MID-CAPS LEAD MARKET LOWER... Link for todays video. Even though the major index ETFs remain in uptrends overall, relative weakness in small-caps and mid-caps over the last eight days is a concern. Chart 1 shows the S&P MidCap 400 SPDR (MDY) surging in the first part... READ MORE
Stocks ended their meandering ways with some downside direction on Tuesday. The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) and Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) led the way lower with losses around 1.4%. All nine sectors were lower with the Technology SPDR (XLK) and Finance SPDR (XLF) leading the way. The defensive sectors... READ MORE
After a big run from late July to mid September, the Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) formed a bearish candlestick reversal over the last 4-5 days. First, there was the gap and doji. This signaled sudden indecision after a big jump. Second, selling pressure followed this indecision as the ETF... READ MORE
Stocks continued their meandering ways on Monday. There is, however, a slight downward slant in this meandering. IWM and SPY peaked on 14-Sept and worked their way lower the last six days. QQQ, which marches to the Apple beat, is trading below the 14-Sep levels, but has been exceptionally volatile... READ MORE
AMAT Breaks Support with Gap. TE Surges on Good Volume. Plus ADM, APOL, CMS, CNL, TEVA, TYC, WCRX, XRAY This commentary and charts-of-interest are designed to stimulate thinking. This analysis is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or sell short any security (stock ETF or otherwise). We all need... READ MORE
HEALTHCARE SHOWS RELATIVE STRENGTH AS INDUSTRIALS SHOW RELATIVE WEAKNESS... Link for todays video. Todays market message will focus on sectors and show different ways to measure performance and internal strength for these sectors. First, I will show how to use the Sector PerfChart to compare all nine. Second, I will... READ MORE
The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) formed a rare bearish candlestick reversal pattern over the last two days. The Bearish Meeting Lines pattern forms with a white candlestick and a black candlestick that have relatively equal closes. In particular, the black candlestick reflects a strong open and a weak... READ MORE
Last week was the week that was not. Stocks surged on Thursday, September 13th, and then stalled the next six days. This indecisive period started as SPY formed a shooting start on Friday, September 14th. The ETF formed small candlesticks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday's open was... READ MORE
When we debuted our StockCharts Technical Rankings (SCTRs) back in November of last year, little did we know that the strongest stock for most of 2012 was just completing its turnaround. Check out this chart of PHM and its historical SCTR line: This is another b-i-g chart, you may need... READ MORE
The Dow Transports surged to resistance last week and plunged to support this week. Overall, the junior Average has been stuck in a trading range since mid June with support at 4900 and resistance around 5250. A break below 4900 would be clearly bearish for the Average and negative for... READ MORE
UTILITIES SPDR FALLS AS TREASURY YIELDS RISE... Link for today's video. While the Consumer Staples SPDR (XLP) and Healthcare SPDR (XLV) trade near 52-week highs, the Utilities SPDR (XLU) trades near its summer lows and remains the weakest of the three defensive sectors. In fact, XLU is the... READ MORE
With new highs last week and flat trading this week, there is no change in the indicator summary. Even though the bulk of the evidence remains bullish, I am concerned with overbought conditions and some extremes starting to appear in the sentiment indicators. The $VIX moved below 15% and the... READ MORE
Thursday marked the fourth uneventful day this week as stocks finished mixed yet again. The Dow Industrials SPDR (DIA) and S&P 100 ETF (OEF) edged higher, but the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) and S&P MidCap SPDR (MDY) closed modestly lower. In fact, we have definitely seen... READ MORE
The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Commodity Index Fund ($DBC) have been positively correlated for almost all of the last 12 months. As the indicator window shows, the Correlation Coefficient (SPY,DBC) dipped into negative territory only twice and spent most of the time above .50. The... READ MORE
REGIONAL BANK SPDR HITS FOUR YEAR HIGH... Two Thursdays ago I showed the Regional Bank SPDR (KRE) testing major overhead resistance along its 2010 high. Chart 1 shows the KRE breaking through that 2010 barrier to reach the highest level in four years (with help from last week's... READ MORE
Stocks finished the day mixed on Wednesday as indecision extended for the third day running. The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) edged lower, while the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) closed fractionally higher. The sectors were mixed with six up and three down. The Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY) led the... READ MORE
The Noose Narrows for BOOM. Downside Volume Expands for NKE. Plus CIEN, DAN, INTU This commentary and charts-of-interest are designed to stimulate thinking. This analysis is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or sell short any security (stock ETF or otherwise). We all need to think for ourselves when... READ MORE
POINT & FIGURE EDITION - USING P&F CHARTS ACROSS TIMEFRAMES... Link for todays video. Todays Market Message will focus on P&F charts. First, we will look at using different timeframes and box sizes to capture different trends. Second, we will show how to use the percentage... READ MORE
The Utilities SPDR (XLU) is by far the weakest of the nine sector SPDRs right now. The P&F chart below uses daily price data and each box is valued at .30%. The ETF broke the Bullish Support Line in August, consolidated and then broke below the prior two... READ MORE
The stock index ETFs continued to drift on Tuesday. After the surge from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, stocks have been drifting for almost three days. Such a drift is not uncommon after a big move. These consolidations give the market time to digest its gains and provide the bulls... READ MORE
Norfolk Southern (NSC) is a railroad company and a key part of the Dow Transports. The chart below shows NSC hitting resistance around 75 and falling over 1% today. Notice that MACD barely made it back in positive territory on the last bounce. Another downturn from here would surely turn... READ MORE
The major index ETFs are in uptrends and overbought. In general, it is much better to pick bottoms than tops in uptrend. Even though SPY, QQQ and IWM are overbought and ripe for a pullback, picking a short-term top is challenging when the bigger trend is clearly up. Overbought conditions... READ MORE
BA Underperforms with Support Break. POT Challenges Channel Resistance. Plus CHK, DAL, NVDA, POT, SBUX, TYC This commentary and charts-of-interest are designed to stimulate thinking. This analysis is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or sell short any security (stock ETF or otherwise). We all need to think for... READ MORE
A FIFTH WAVE FOR THE S&P 500 ... Link for todays video. Even though some Elliott rules and guidelines dont fit, the advance from the October low to the September high shows a clear five-wave structure. There are three rules for Elliott Wave. First, wave 2 cannot retrace more... READ MORE
The Bullish Percent Index (BPI) shows the percentage of stocks on Point & Figure buy signals within a specific group. Even though bulls have the edge when the BPI is above 50%, chartists also need to watch the direction of the BPI. The image below shows six sector BPI charts... READ MORE
Is it really this easy? Does another round of quantitative easing insure higher equity prices over the next few months? Well, the stock market agrees as the major index ETFs hit new highs last week and remain in clear uptrends. Also note that stocks were strong during prior periods of... READ MORE
The Fed announced that it will purchase $40 billion a month in mortgage backed securities which adds to its holdings of long-term securities and ushers in another round of quantitative easing (QE3). The markets have all reacted in predictable fashion. The dollar and bond prices are falling while commodities and... READ MORE
Living in the Washington DC area, I'm not sure which was more exciting - QE3 or RG3! The market was set up for higher prices as traders anticipated more quantitative easing. Fed Chairman Bernanke did not disappoint. By providing a third round of quantatative easing, the Fed aims... READ MORE
Well, finally the past economic/political week has passed, and we find ourselves starting down the barrel of QE-3. There is no need to go into the particulars of QE-3, but suffice to say that the Fed is buying mortgage-agency debt rather than adding to their Treasury debt holdings. This... READ MORE
Hello Fellow ChartWatchers! The Fed spoke and the markets took off. StockCharts.com was one of the best places to watch as stocks surged in the wake of the Fed's QE3 announcement. You can read more about how it affected things from the rest of the columnists in... READ MORE
Stocks surged on Thursday after the Fed announced another round of quantitative easing, and extended their gains on Friday. Obviously, the stock market is pleased with the announcement. The chart below shows the S&P 500 since September 2008 and the yellow areas mark the beginning-end of the prior... READ MORE
QUANTITATIVE EASING AND THE S&P 500 SINCE 2008... Link for todays video. Stocks surged on Thursday after the Fed announced another round of quantitative easing. Obviously, the stock market is pleased with the announcement. Chart 1 shows the S&P 500 since September 2008 and the yellow... READ MORE
StocksCharts.com has a new technical alerts page that shows key milestones for dozens of ETFs and indices. On Thursday, September 13th, note that 10 securities recorded new 52-week highs. These include the Nasdaq, Russell 2000, Dow, S&P 500 and six sector SPDRs. Click this image for a... READ MORE
With new highs in the major index ETFs, there is little doubt where the bulk of the evidence lies. The bulls are clearly in charge of this market right now. The NYSE AD Line hit a new high, the NYSE AD Volume Line is near its spring high and NYSE... READ MORE