ChartSmarter Monday Game Plan 3/3/14

Markets finished Friday mixed, but with February now in the books it was a much better month than January. The Nasdaq recorded a wild day to end the week and month with a daily range of almost 70 handles finishing lower by .25%. Earlier in the day it had been up more than .5%. Volume was the second heaviest of the year, behind only the large 2.6% drop on the first trading day of February. It gained 1% on the week, and is enjoying a 4 week winning streak. The bearish move by the leading benchmark Friday, up 3.1% since January 1st should not be taken lightly. The S&P 500 rose Friday and advanced 1.3% for the week. We continue to be somewhat concerned with the way the benchmarks as well as many individual equities are trading. We see a lot of V shaped bases which are more failure prone, and little in the way of tight, constructive bullish action, making names that display that taut action even more significant. That being said, it is hard to ignore the trend and that remains upward. There does seem to be a flight to safety as many REITs have put in very strong Februaries. Many are forming handles on their respective bases just above there recently taken out 200 day SMAs. That is not a sector the bulls want to see capital being thrown at. Retail continues to be drag on the indexes as names like DECK CHS PIR all being down more than 17% from their most recent 52 week highs. Conversely names also reporting this week putting in good showings were M GPS. M rose 8% on the week taking out a V shaped base we previously mentioned. The trigger was 56.75 and curiously was a name that did NOT blame the cold weather. GPS put up its fifth consecutive weekly gain, a feat not achieved since an 11 week winning streak back in the spring and summer of 2012.