ChartSmarter Tuesday Game Plan 10/20/15

Markets gyrated behind gains and losses to begin the week. The Nasdaq which was higher by more than .5% early on faded intraday to fall .3% only to CLOSE higher by .4%. We are longer term investors here but looking at the intraday chart of the tech index looked like a breakout to the UPSIDE of a bearish head and shoulders pattern. It did meet resistance at its 200 day SMA and looking left one can see it bumped into resistance at the 4900 number which was prior support in April, May and July. The S&P 500 finished UNCH. Sectors that lagged today included the energy and material groups. Gold fell 1.2% and oil by 2.5% and perhaps the benchmarks are attempting to rid themselves of being hostage to the price of crude. Some things to keep an eye on are the lagging plays have begun to take the spotlight with names like TWTR, whom Ballmer disclosed a stake last week. FEYE which has been the subject to merger rumors and GPRO. TWTR rose 17.3% the week ending 10/9 and bullishly tacked on another 1% last week. FEYE rallied 10% off intraweek lows last weeks to CLOSE well into the upper half of its weekly trading range. GPRO having lost two thirds of its value from recent 52 week highs rose almost 4% Monday. Some will claim when the laggards start to outperform there likely will be some impending, overall weakness. In the semiconductor sector which has been on the move higher we see some bidding wars for a name one would not really think of as best of breed. Today MSCC entered the fray upping SWKS’s offer for PMCS. Things getting frothy? In the semi space I would stick to leaders who have traded very taut. One I like very much is IDTI and below is the chart how it appeared in last Fridays Game Plan.