ChartSmarter Friday Game Plan 8/29/14

Markets fell slightly Thursday, but finished off session lows in another boring summer session. Volume was tame as traders most likely headed for the exit coming up on a 3 day holiday weekend. Keep in mind shortened weeks often are bullish for the benchmarks, and perhaps investors will be reluctant to let go of any positions heading going into Friday, anticipating potential gains next week. The Nasdaq fell .3% today and the S&P 500 by .2%. For the week both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are ahead by just more than .4%. They are also both looking for a fourth consecutive weekly gain. The story of the day for me was the weakness in a best of breed retail name WSM. The stock reported earnings Thursday and fell 12%, undercutting its 50 day SMA in the process. It was alarming in the fact that it had achieved solid gains the last 3 times it reported gaining 8.2, 9.8 and 7.6% on 5/22, 3/13 and 11/21/13 respectively. Would be easy to say that this name was priced to perfection, and was hammered as it failed to deliver the goods. This is concerning as fellow best of breed name M warned of a tough environment after releasing numbers on 8/13 dropping 5.5%. It did find precise 200 day SMA support that session and has risen 7.5% last week and this week is ahead by 1%. Will WSM rebound in similar fashion? Other names in the sector faltered today including GES RH and ANF. Makes you scratch your head when you look at the higher revised GDP numbers.