ChartSmarter Monday Game Plan 6/19/17

Markets showed their ability yet again to shrug off early declines, but it was the Nasdaq which underperformed losing .2%. It has dropped five of the last 6 sessions, although that is somewhat misleading as 4 of the last 5 managed to CLOSE in the upper half of the daily range, a bullish sign. The tech rich benchmark fell for a second consecutive week by .9% after last weeks fall of 1.55%. It has not recorded a 3 week losing streak in one year dating back to the weeks ending 6/10-24/16 as it wrestled with the very round 5000 number, which was followed by a massive 3.3% jump the week ending 7/1/16 in the best weekly volume dating back to October ’14. To be balanced it was the second week the Nasdaq was outdone by the S&P 500, which gained .1% for the week and the last 3 have now all CLOSED very taut all within just 7 handles of each other, keeping its bull flag formation intact. On a YTD basis the score between the two competitors is narrowing with the Nasdaq ahead by 14.3% and the S&P 500 by 8.7%. On the weekly timeframe two big sectors stood out contributing to the S&P’s solid behavior, being the utilities and more so the industrials. Both the XLU and XLI scored moves of 1.6% with each hitting fresh all time highs. Below is the chart of a best of breed industrial play IR and how it appeared in our Thursday 6/15 Game Plan. Technology was the big loser with the XLK losing 1.4% in the largest weekly trade since the summer of ’15 and has for now been holding its 50 day SMA three times alone this week. This is a very important line where investors will normally add to positions but bulls would have enjoyed seeing volume a little softer on the test. For now it has to be given the benefit of the doubt. Certainly the big news of the day was the AMZN interest in WFM. Talk about the round numbers, it surpassed the huge Henry Blodget 1000 price target, a couple decades late, but today came within 25 cents of reclaiming it before it backed off. Technology would get a big boost if it can climb back above that figure and hold firm.