Markets closed out the week Friday with decent gains as we go into the holiday shortened week, which are traditionally bullish in nature. The Nasdaq recorded its second 3% plus weekly gain of the year, and the 10.6% combined drop the weeks ending 1/8-15 seem a distant memory. A move next week above the 4970 level would put an end to the bears chant of lower highs and lower lows since recent all time highs. The tech heavy benchmark is now on a 4 session winning streak and has outperformed the S&P 500 for a third straight week. It still has some work to do being 6% off recent 52 week highs, whereas the S&P 500 is just 2% off its, and that should give the markets some extra stamina to continue to advance. The S&P 500 continues to have issues CLOSING above the 2100 number and next week seems crucial. An inability yet another time being rejected there would concern technicians. Financials and technology led the way Friday and these 2 groups remain the beneficiaries of healthy sector rotation. Retail has been a clear laggard and rightly so with recent earnings debacles with names like ANF, CHS, SIG, FRAN, GPS, M, and JWN. But if we can start to see these names stabilize and enjoy some capital flow into them that would energize the bulls. Some of that is beginning as we had nice reactions from ULTA and BIG and even DECK today. Earlier this month good moves followed releases from WMT, URBN, COST and BURL to name a few. One of my favorite names in the space that has yet to break out, but has held up so well in a difficult retail arena is MIK. Below is the chart of the stock how we profiled it in our Friday Game Plan.

This article requires a Chartsmarter membership. Please click here to join.