ChartSmarter Friday Game Plan 6/16/17

Markets are seeming to look through the political events of the day, with a decent reversal off session lows Thursday. The Nasdaq was once again the benchmark that had to dig deep as it was lower by early on by 1.4% and ended up down .5%. The S&P 500 continues to trade tightly between the 2420-2440 level and now sports a bull flag pattern. A break above 2442 would have a measured move of nearly 90 points. On a weekly basis the S&P 500 is up fractionally for the week, while the Nasdaq has declined .7% heading into Friday. The best investors however are always more focused on the possible downside, while letting the upside take care of itself, and the bond markets may be keeping investors up at night. Conventional wisdom is that they are usually right, as it dwarfs the size of the equity markets, but some declare that relationship has been muted with government intervention in recent years. In a very basic, elementary way bond yields and stock prices have a positive correlation, but the divergence has been eye opening as indexes hit recent all time highs and yield sag. Big institutions, like supertankers take time to unload positions, and this process takes time. Perhaps they have begun with a series of heavy selling recently, but opinions mean nothing compared to price action. One matter is trade has become very loose on the Nasdaq the last several sessions, hallmark bearish characteristics, and some names may have been foreshadowing this newborn volatility. The financials, but very specifically the exchanges, have been behaving very energetically with the likes of CME, ICE, CBOE and NDAQ vastly outperforming. Increased trading activity as traders become nervous will help their bottom line. ICE has gained 15 of the last 20 sessions with all five down days off less than .31% to give you an idea just how robust the moves have been. Some names in the tech space have obviously been under pressure, and a name that was a favorite of mine until recently no looks fragile. Below is the chart of SYMC and how it appeared in our 6/14 Wednesday Game Plan. It is now on a current six session losing streak and has slipped 14% from recent 52 week highs.