Markets were underwater all day after weak German economic data and of course crude. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 fell by 1%. Interestingly 2 of the 3 worst performing S&P sectors today were defensive in nature with the telecommunication and utilities surrendering 1.4 and 1.55% respectively (banks were hit to the tune of 1.55% too). Bonds which tend to be looked at as conservative and compete with stocks for capital actually acted well. Since taking out a bullish falling wedge pattern on 3/23 the TLT it is now looking like a cup base pivot point of 135.35 will be challenged in the near future. Many salty investors tend to believe the bond market behavior more so then the equity markets and a look at the TLT shows it is on a 3 week winning streak, albeit small gains each time, and one would have thought that it would have acted a bit more uncertain in the face of the equity rally. But it is oil which everyone seems to be talking about. WTI came into Tuesday on a 9 session losing streak after hitting a roadblock at the 200 day SMA just above the round 40 number. Bulls can perhaps declare at least a dead bounce is on the horizon after this acrimonious pullback, or it could be a pause in an ongoing trend change (I tend to think the former). WTI does have a couple of positives going for it here with potential support at an upward sloping 50 day SMA and potentially finding support at a prior breakout through a bullish ascending triangle.
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