Complete Monday Game Plan

Markets finished the week Friday, with the first real test during a slew of reports, and the final tally was mixed, but constructive. The S&P 500 outperformed its rival Nasdaq by a full percentage point, up .7%, to the Nasdaq’s .3% decline. It was the first time in 5 weeks the S&P 500 outdid the Nasdaq on a weekly basis. Of course some big names disappointed like EBAY MSFT INTC. For the year it is amazing how uniformly, and close the indexes are mirroring themselves on a YTD basis. The Nasdaq maintains its slim margin up 18.8%, compared to the S&P 500’s and Dow’s 18.6%. Even with the lackluster day recorded Friday a look at the new highs versus new lows list, showed solid resilience. Stocks making new 52 week highs on the Nasdaq were 214-6, and the NYSE 241-13. And a group that is still trying to find some momentum, energy, had a larger than normal amount on that list. Names included were SLB APC XOM EOG EXH ATW. A lesser known name on that list, that perhaps we will become more familiar with is NR. The energy services firm recently took out an 11.88 flat base trigger on 7/9. It is still waiting for volume confirmation however. The relentless amount of downgrades the restaurants received this week a confirmation of a perceived crude price going higher, or have they come to far to fast?