Markets continue to stabilize after the outsized gains to begin the week Monday and Tuesday. The Nasdaq added .4% Thursday after its 2% combined advance the first 2 days of the week and the S&P 500 has CLOSED the last 3 sessions very tautly all within just ONE handle of each other after the 1.7% jump Monday and Tuesday. For the week the Nasdaq has risen 2.3% and the S&P 500 by 1.7%. The S&P 500 has the look of starting a handle on the current cup base it is working on and remember for the handle to be considered legitimate it must be 5 days in duration. The cyclicals keep on sizzling as the XLY is now higher 8 of the last 9 days. Of course it does not hurt to have AMZN as your largest component, making up more than 14% of the fund. It is hard to bet against that name although it is retesting the intraday highs from the 4/5 session which recorded a bearish shooting star followed by an engulfing candle the very next day (earnings after the close as of this writing have the stock up 4%). The second biggest name in the XLY happens to be HD which keeps quietly humming along up 16% YTD and now at all time highs. Peer LOW is higher by 20% YTD and both are benefitting from a strong housing sector. The two names were never affected by the comprehensive retail slump. Remember consumers have been more selective in their spending habits and below is another name, from our Monday 4/24 Game Plan, that has put itself in high gear and mending very well. WYNN has been considered a proxy of Chinese gamblers but it has plenty of exposure domestically. Lagging badly Thursday was the energy group with the XLE now off 14% from recent 52 week highs. It has declined 14 of the last 19 weeks and is another good indicator that trends tend to persist more likely than they are to reverse.

This article requires a Chartsmarter membership. Please click here to join.