ChartSmarter Wednesday Game Plan 6/17/15

Markets welcomed nice gains Tuesday as the benchmarks spent very little time in negative territory and went out on highs for the session. The S&P 500 rose .6% and the Nasdaq by .5%. The Dow recorded its third straight triple digit move, although this was the first to advance. To steal a phrase from my old tennis days the indexes remain in “no mans land”. Moves above the 50 day SMA on the S&P 500, just above the round 2100 figure and a play through 5120 on the Nasdaq’s ascending triangle would bring renewed confidence to the bulls. All 10 major S&P sectors gained ground Tuesday, precisely the opposite of what occurred on Monday. Leading the way were the defensive consumer staples group which rose 1.1% as a whole. The group is chock full of food, tobacco, beverages and household names. Looking at the XLP on its weekly chart one can see how difficult it was for the ETF to get above the very round 50 figure. From the week ending 12/26/14, every week intraweek it traded with a 49 handle but achieved only one weekly finish above 50, the week ending 2/27 by a mere penny. That streak stopped the last 2 weeks and lets see if its 200 day SMA can prove supportive like it did last August and October. Below is a post from our Friday 5/29 Game Plan where we looked at a short opportunity on DPS. The stock is on a 4 week losing streak and has lost ground 10 of the last 14 sessions. Notice how tough it was to CLOSE above the round 80 handle which it was never able to do (it traded intraday above it on 1/28 and 2/12). Perhaps now is a time to ponder a long entry as it rests near its 200 day SMA.