Markets stormed higher after the Fed statement as the S&P 500 jumped 1.2% and the Nasdaq by .9% after spending all morning in negative territory. Interesting that both indexes CLOSED beneath their respective round numbers, the Nasdaq’s 5000 handle obviously more psychologically and visually important. The Nasdaq completed a slightly unorthodox, but bullish three white soldiers pattern today, which tend to work better after downtrends. The S&P 500 recorded a bullish engulfing pattern off precise 50 day SMA support Wednesday. More welcoming was the volume boost accompanying todays session. Was it real buying or short covering or a combination of the two? Perhaps the bears can point to the action of the top performing groups today, the energy and utilities, which are very defensive in nature. Generally you would like to see the leaders being vital growth sectors like the transports. FDX today reported earnings and fell for a second consecutive time. It lost 1.4 and 3.7% today and 12/17. Peer UPS lost 9.9% on 1/23 after releasing a warnings that fourth quarter sales would come up short. There was a time when these two names were big bellwethers and would negatively affect the stock market. Moves back above 168 on the IYT and 18290 on the Dow will have the Dow Theorists singing.
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