ChartSmarter Monday Game Plan 7/17/17

Markets scored yet another winning session and it is the Nasdaq which has really grabbed the spotlight this week, outshining the S&P 500 all five days. The tech rich index also gained ground everyday this week and rose 2.59%, its best weekly gain in 8 months. It narrowly missed taking out its 6313 double bottom trigger, but on the weekly chart one can make the case for a very long bull flag formation that began near the very round 5000 figure the week ending 11/4/16, just before the election. A break above the 6350 mark could ignite a 1,350 handle move higher. The S&P 500 rose 1.4% this week and is now well above its 2440 flag trigger, and YTD the Nasdaq is higher by 17.3% and the S&P 500 has added 9.8%. Friday saw the best action from the technology, consumer staples and healthcare sectors and the financials were the only group to fall with the XLF dropping .5%. The XLK jumped 3.4% this week and perhaps the only caveat is volume trends which have been soft on up weeks and vica versa. Recently the weeks ending 6/9, 16 and 30 all fell, and CLOSED in the lower half of their weekly ranges in stronger than average volume losing 2, 1.4 and 2.8% respectively. We are not paid on volume however, but PRICE which we are can not be denied and bulls would probably point to the summer doldrums being responsible. A big reason technology has made such a swift comeback has been the action within the semiconductor names. The SMH rose 4.3% this week and its chart looks almost identical to the XLK. Below is the chart of TSEM and how it was looked at in Fridays Game Plan. It is now 1% above a cup base trigger, and volume was not lackluster in this name as weekly volume was the best in 19 months, and daily volume on todays breakout was better than any of the previous 4 earnings reactions, which were ALL higher.