Markets were little changed Thursday with the Nasdaq halting its 4 day winning streak, but its close in the upper half of its daily range should be interpreted as bullish. Often it is said its not how you start, but how you finish, and the Nasdaq climbed in the latter part of the session and volume accelerated as it did. The S&P 500 did manage to finish higher and is on a 5 day winning streak. For the week going into Friday it is higher by 1.2%, compared to the Nasdaq’s 1.1% and remember the Nasdaq has outperformed the S&P 500 for the last 5 weeks and that streak is in jeopardy. The slow and steady moves on the benchmarks highlight the old adage never short a dull market. For a second consecutive day utilities led the way, followed by consumer staples. The strong energy, industrials, financials and health care groups taking a well needed pause, or something more to ponder? Gold and silver flew today and looking at the SLV weekly chart notice that it is enjoying a very robust week up by 5.3% thus far. Digging deeper into the weekly chart one can see prior super sized weekly gains often fell apart not long after the moves. The week ending 8/16/13 saw the ETF gain more than 13%, but fell 11 of the next 16 weeks. The week ending 2/14 rose 7.2%, however the ETF fell 7 of the next 12 weeks, with 3 of the up weeks up less than a dime. Different this time around?

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