ChartSmarter Tuesday Game Plan 1/19/15

Markets roller coaster ride continued Friday for the benchmarks as both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose for the first time all week. The Nasdaq gained 1.4% Friday, but lost 1.4% for a third consecutive weekly loss and YTD is lower by 2.1%. The S&P 500 which missed a good looking bullish engulfing candle by 2 points rose 1.3% Friday and fell 1.25% for the week and is now lower by 1.9% in 2015. Earnings season is going to get more hectic going forward and Friday saw a nice mixture of diverse sectors reacting. Among the industrials PCP lost 9.1% and should not have been much of a surprise as today marked the 5th consecutive earnings miss (it lost 1, 5.5, .3 and 3.5% on 10/23/14, 7/24, 5/8 and 1/23). It recorded a bullish hammer rallying more than 13 handles off intraday lows to finish right at session highs. SLB advanced more than 6% after a very well received release. It recaptured the round 80 handle and technicians often like to “look left” to see important levels that may have provided support or resistance in the past. A look all the way back to the weeks ending 8/2-8/30/13 showed no CLOSES below the round 80 handle and that figure was not touched again until precisely CLOSING there the week ending 12/12/14. Perhaps the first 4 days underneath 80 were a bear trap and now the stock is ready to march higher still 32% off recent all time highs. INTC an “old tech” play turned premarket losses in the 3% neighborhood into a gain of .7%. The stock has traded tightly the last 3 weeks all closing within .30 of each other and one can buy here as it regained its 50 day SMA and add to above a 38.00 flat base trigger.