ChartSmarter Thursday Game Plan 9/22/16

Markets marched higher after it looked as if the indexes were going to fade early advances for a third consecutive day. We have heard that this tends to be one of the worst weeks for stocks historically but the benchmarks went out on highs for the session with the Nasdaq rising 1% and S&P 500 rallying by 1.1%. Before one gets to euphoric the Nasdaq has run into problems here at all time highs so lets proceed with caution, but many are positioned for stocks to go lower which could assist the bulls. The S&P 500 is running into 50 day SMA resistance, which is still sloping upward. Time is of the essence for the index to reclaim that line as today marked the 9th consecutive session CLOSING underneath the 50 day (in May it spent just 5 sessions below and June saw two separate occasions finishing under the 50 day for 4 straight days before recapturing the line). All of the major S&P sectors moved higher with energy powering up by 2.3% as the greenback slipped with no rate hike. Utilities continue to mount their impressive run with the XLU advancing 2% and recouping the round 50 number we have been discussing plenty about. As the major averages march higher one should pay attention to names that have been left by the wayside. Stocks from from diverse groups such as CMG, CBI and HES have been weak and could present shorting opportunities into strength. Names like CMG down 9 of the last 10, CBI 20 of the last 23 and HES 16 of the last 18. Select healthcare names continue to work and below is the chart of AGIO which we profiled in our Friday Game Plan last week. It is now 4 handles above the recommended pivot and still has room to run with its measured move to 60.