ChartSmarter Friday Game Plan 7/31/15

The Nasdaq returned to its leadership role Thursday as it erased early morning losses of .75% to a gain of .3%. It was the benchmarks 3rd consecutive session going out on highs for the day and the second straight where it bounced intraday off precise 50 day SMA support. The S&P 500 turned its day around as well but was only able to get back to the even mark. For the week heading into Friday the S&P 500 is up by 1.4% compared with the Nasdaq’s .9% gain. Sectors in the mix Thursday that led were the utilities and consumer staples, with the lagging energy group taking a day off after leading the last couple sessions. Looks like the transports are beginning to gather a little steam, pun intended. Some of the rail plays have put up decent earnings results like CNI and KSU and the rail parts makers like WAB and logistics play CHRW is joining the fray. Little followed SAIA put up good numbers Wednesday as well. These names have been hit pretty hard and both were stopped cold at their 200 day SMAs even after gains of 11.8 and 4.7% for SAIA and CHRW respectively Wednesday. Today airline laggard VA broke above the round 30 handle (twice this month it traded intraday above 30 on 7/17 and /23 but was unable to CLOSE above) which was also a bullish ascending triangle formation. Looking at the pure play illiquid ETF JETS, it is sporting a cup with handle trigger of 24.58. Monitor to see if the fund is ready for “takeoff” in the near term.