ChartSmarter Thursday Game Plan 9/8/16

Markets concluded Wednesdays session without much fanfare with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 finishing close to the UNCH line, but it was the Russell 2000 which gained .6% which captured investors attention. We have spoken recently about its strength due to the heavy financial weighting, but one has to believe that many are putting capital into the index because of the belief in the US stock market. The benchmark is made up of small cap names and keep in mind they do the vast majority of the business domestically. Today the Nasdaq eked out a fractional gain of .1% and recorded a spinning top candle which often indicates at least a pause or weakening of the existing trend. The index has registered a couple of dojis, but the candlesticks recently have been much better at forecasting bottoms than tops and a look at the MACD shows a potential bullish crossover which has not happened since July when it went on to robust gains. The best performing sector Wednesday was the energy group which was also on Tuesday. The XLE did record a spinning top as well today testing the bearish harami from the 8/19 session. Below is the chart of of CPE and how it was looked at in a recent post and Wednesday it shrugged off some early weakness after an announced stock offering and finished higher on the day, a bullish sign.