ChartSmarter Monday Game Plan 7/28/14

Markets ended the week on a down note, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq off .5%. For the week the S&P 500 was UNCH and the Nasdaq was higher by .4% and on a YTD basis the S&P 500 maintains its advantage with a 7% advance, compared to the S&P 500’s 6.5% move. The week brought its good and bad, but some important groups took it on the chin and adds to concerns about a potential summer slowdown. First a newly developing one was the softness in the semiconductor group. Seems like the “old tech” and big cap giant INTC is capturing most of the limelight, while smaller names in the space suffer. We spoke of XLNX this week with its plunge on Wednesday, but others like FSL recorded its second consecutive earnings miss slumping 16.8% this week after a 13.8% decline on 4/25. SLAB which lost 14.4% Friday, fell 9.2% on 4/29, a horrendous 1-2 combo. MXIM puts up back to back misses with losses of 4.4% on 4/25 and 10.8% Friday. KLAC gave up 7.1% on 4/25 after a poorly received report and dropped 1.9% Friday, but did manage to find support near its 50 day SMA and reversed almost precisely off the round 70 handle. QCOM slumped 3.5% on 4/24 and a “devilish” 6.6% Thursday. One miss can be written off, but two begins to start a trend. The builder group was not so surprising, as the chips were acting powerful they conversely could not get there act together. Best in breed DHI was bruised the most taking a 2×4 to the head Thursday plummeting 11.5%. Others in the group losing their 200 day SMAs were TMHC LEN TOL PHM.