Markets put in a lukewarm start to the week Monday and the Nasdaq seems to have found some life. Many remain skeptical and that is a good thing as it could add potential fuel to any fire of rally that may come about. The Nasdaq added .4% today, outdoing the S&P 500’s advance of .1% (the Russell 2000 fell .5%). After spending 5 consecutive sessions below its upward sloping 50 day SMA the Nasdaq did reclaim it today and lets see if we can see some follow through the rest of the week. It has been acting better overall as it has outperformed the S&P 500 on a weekly basis 2 of the last 3 weeks. Looking at individual groups it was technology, materials and energy that led the way, and staples that lagged as the XLP is looking at a potential sixth consecutive weekly loss. The XLP is looking weak too as it quickly surrendered its breakout above a 10 month long cup base trigger of 56.12 taken out originally the week ending 5/26, and notice the last 5 weeks all CLOSED at the lows for the weekly range, a bearish sign. One sector that fell today and should not be surprising as things in motion tend to stay in motion whether they are advancing or declining are the retail names. Former leader COST has dropped 13 of the last 17 sessions after the AMZN/WFM news, and is now nearing bear market territory 18% off recent 52 week highs. ANF sank 21% after a merger discussions cooled, but when you start seeing leaders in the group stung, ones intuition should perk up. FIVE is now 16% off most recent 52 week highs and the issues started after a weekly cup base trigger of 52.80 was unable to be taken out on a weekly CLOSING basis (notice too the failure to break above a very tight 3 week period ending between 5/19-6/2 which all CLOSED within just .42 of each other. Peer leader BBY sank more than 6% today too and below is the chart and how it appeared in our 6/5 Game Plan and a good example of why one should wait for CLOSING PRICE confirmation.

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