Complete Monday Game Plan 10/21/13

Markets rejoiced Friday once again as the major benchmarks padded big recent gains even further. The Nasdaq for for its 6 day in the last 7 sessions. For the week it gained 3.2%. Volume which was a missing ingredient returned to very healthy levels both on Thursday and Friday. Those two sessions alone the Nasdaq from Thursdays low to Fridays high gained almost 100 handles. The index is now up just shy of 30% YTD. The S&P 500 was up Friday for the 7th time in 8 days and volume has returned there as well, as the end of the year push is on. It tacked on 2.4% after last weeks bullish outside week. It is now up 22.6% YTD. Looking around the globe Japan is the only major industrialized nation with a better YTD gain that the S&P 500. It is up 23.9%. Debt is in vogue. The markets melt up continues perhaps because of the notion that QE tapering will be delayed, the government shutdown was averted temporarily, or on a lighter note maybe we will soon find out that the Fed has FB TSLA on its balance sheet, akin to the TARP days when they held GM AIG among others. Of course that last statement is an attempt at humor. As technicians we are concerned with price first and foremost, so the news is just noise. Earnings reports during the week were mixed with IBM EBAY YHOO GS missing among the more well known names, and GOOG CMG beating. The dollar lost ground this week, with the UUP down 1% and its 5th weekly loss in the last 6. That helped some commodities like steel, but copper barely yawned. The JJC lost ground Thursday and Friday and has formed a symmetrical triangle which could go either way. The fact that it did not move much on China data could be speaking volumes.