ChartSmarter Friday Game Plan 7/22/16

Markets lost modestly Thursday but a deeper look shows it may have been a bit worse than it first looked. The Nasdaq fell .5% and the S&P 500 by .4% but if not for a very mild late day rally, both would have went out on lows for the session after being up in the morning hours, hallmark bearish behavior. It is just one day but the Nasdaq did record a bearish dark cloud cover candle finding resistance at the round 5100 for a second straight day. The S&P 500 registered a bearish engulfing candle, one notch above the dark cloud cover pattern in negativity. On the weekly chart both of the previously mentioned indexes are up on the week, but if the week ended today the S&P 500 would record a bearish gravestone doji candle at all time highs. Looking at individual sectors investors fled to safety during the course of the day as the utilities, via the XLU, went from worst to first, after finding support just above a 3 weekly tight breakout above the 51 number between the weeks ending 6/10-24. This week is heavy with the earnings calendar and a trio of “old tech” names reacted Thursday and as Meatloaf would have said 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. QCOM and EBAY jumped 7 and 11% after reporting and each did battle with the round numbers of 60 and 30 respectively. QCOM managed to break above a 55.57 double bottom trigger on Wednesday and EBAY CLOSED just above a 29.83 cup base pivot point in a base that began almost 9 months ago the week ending 12/4/15. QCOM’s peer INTC slipped up to the tune of 4%, a day after taking out a 35.40 cup with handle trigger. There was some M&A activity as well with RLYP and JOY being taken out. Energy names disappointed Thursday as the XLE was the worst performing sector. Below is the chart of former best of breed name EQT and how it was profiled in our Friday 7/15 Game Plan. That 50 day SMA may get “drilled” to the downside soon, pun intended.