ChartSmarter Wednesday Game Plan 8/9/17

Markets let decent intraday gains slip away and it was the Nasdaq that conceded the most as it was higher by .6% in the very early afternoon hours and ended up with a loss of .2%. The tech rich index did show some early life but it is now attempting to overcome a nasty second big bearish engulfing candle from 7/27 (previous one was recorded on 6/9). We have been discussing the recent travails of the benchmark, and perhaps it is just taking a breather as it recently did register a strong 13 of 14 session winning streak, with the only down session coming on 7/21 which fell just 2 handles. Talking about winning streaks the Dow ended its own at 10 Tuesday, and of course who can forget the 15 session winning streak the Russell 2000 performed last November. Perhaps it is time for the S&P 500 document one of its own, although today it gave the look of a bull trap as it reversed after nicely moving above a bull flag pattern from all time highs. Many cyclicals do reside in the S&P 500 and today some retailers flew after reporting earnings. Two notable laggards KORS and RL advanced 21.5 and 13.3% respectively. KORS was able to record its first positive earnings reaction in its last 5 and RL in its last 3. Looking at individual groups it was those pesky utilities that just do not seem to go away. The XLU rose .4% but was the only major S&P sector to gain ground today and is now sniffing out a 54.73 cup base trigger and a break above would make it an all time high. Below is one of our favorite plays in the group ETR and how it was profiled in our Monday Game Plan this week. It never ventured to far below its 50 day SMA and is now looking to perk back above the line as a good looking tight cup base takes shape.