ChartSmarter Wednesday Game Plan 7/16/15

Markets displayed some resilience Tuesday with benchmarks finishing off session lows, but with the Dow outperforming the Nasdaq and S&P 500 for a third consecutive day, one has to wonder if perhaps some risk is being taken off the table in favor of the old dodgy, defensive blue chips. The Nasdaq, which has been weak relatively speaking since making a nice charge of the past few months to hit break even on a YTD basis with the S&P 500, led the way lower today closing down .5%. It did make a decent move off intraday lows of more than 1% right at noon time. Financials were among the best performers Tuesday as C handed off the ball after their nice report Monday (it ran up another 2% Tuesday and may be finally looking to leave its 200 day SMA behind) to JPM and GS. JPM rose 3.6% today after a well received earnings release. It is carving out a cup base with a potential trigger of 61.58, the intraweek high made back during the week ending 3/28 (breakout there would put name at more than decade old highs). There were 3 very tight, bullish weekly closes all within 36 cents of each other. GS gained just more than 1% and not surprisingly net resistance at the round 170 figure. Bearish moves of the day award has to go to KORS which lost 7.3% Tuesday a day after slipping below its 200 day SMA, usually a red flag. Biotechs were hit today as well as the IBB recorded its third 2% plus loss in the last 7 sessions, all in very strong trade. The round 250 handle is tenuously holding for now.