Complete Tuesday Game Plan 12/3/13

Markets fell like an errant AMZN “drone” in the final hour to finish with mild losses. The Nasdaq fell .4% and the S&P 500 .3%. Late selling is hallmark bearish activity and beginning to become a little more frequent then bulls would like. Think @traderoffortune said it best today when he tweeted “if you not seeing distribution signs here you need to clean your glasses.” Energy names have been lagging most of the year, with some select leadership that has faltered as well. Names like PXD and EOG are both off 22 and 12% off their most recent 52 week highs. These names started descending well before the Iran talks, which were blamed for the softness. Looking at their moves overall, is it suggestive of a weak economy? On that front we did get some retail sales figures from the Black Friday bonanza and they came in about in line. Sales were down slightly but attributed to better bargains and therefore lower prices. Isn’t just so convenient how excuses are made. If I remember correctly last year was blamed on the weather. On the retail front with consumer spending, which really controls the bulk of the GDP, a number of companies will be reporting earnings this week hopefully providing some clarity. Tonight ASNA reports, and later in the week names like EXPR ULTA ZUMZ BIG AEO release. GES will do so too this week and we can only “guess” which opportune excuse they will come up with providing they miss.