Markets kept the bull train on the tracks Thursday as the Nasdaq once again dominated with a gain of .7% and taking out a double bottom trigger of 5312. The S&P 500 rose .4% today and for the week headed into Friday have respectable gains with the Nasdaq ahead 1.8% and the S&P 500 by 1%. Looking over certain sectors, if tech can continue to act well after a recent pause, select groups should outperform. The semiconductors are an obvious choice, but one should not overlook the software sector. Of course the 800lb gorilla in the room is MSFT which recently filled in a gap on Monday and managed to reverse and CLOSE above its 50 day SMA. The stock has now gained more than 1% the last 3 sessions. Looking more broadly at the group there has been a fair amount of M&A activity within, as the names of MENT TUBE ININ BLOX all have been gobbled up recently. Below is the chart of an “old tech” play in the space ADBE and how it was presented in our 11/11 Game Plan and is progressing nicely since filling in its own gap near 102 on 11/14. We witnessed some takeover action in the energy group as well Thursday with WNR being swallowed by TSO, and at a healthy premium. The market was also greeted with some pleasant earnings reactions in the retail space with BBY, PLCE and PERY all up between 12-14% Thursday after reporting. On the other hand the monster in the retail space WMT, did manage to disappoint shareholders as it fell 3.1%, but perhaps that should not have surprised anyone. The stock is lower 9 of the last 13 weeks after back to back spinning top weekly candles ending 8/12-19.

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