Markets, dare I say registered yet another lackluster session to begin the week. The Nasdaq rose .3%, the S&P 500 by .2% and the Russell 2000 was UNCH. The Dow behaved best adding .4% and this index which recorded a bearish spinning top candle on Friday is now above that and it now sits nearly 800 handles above its upward sloping 50 day SMA. At this point we are nearly into November and for that reason I think tech will outperform heading into year end as portfolio managers, who do not have the FANG names will need to look like they have and window dress appropriately (of course the number of PMs not holding them at the moment is most likely few). AAPL did help the Nasdaq today rising almost 2% on an upgrade and is now testing the round 160 number and we highlighted this name in our Monday 9/23 Game Plan as a buy off the 150 number which also coincided with a gap fill from the 8/1 session.
Looking at individual groups on Monday it was financials, tech and energy that were the best actors with the XLF rose .6%. It did have some issues last week especially after C and JPM reported earnings last Thursday. The ETF still looks promising as it can complete a bullish 3 week tight pattern depending on Fridays CLOSE, with the last 2 weeks both finishing within just .22 of each other. Energy is still proving the naysayers wrong and we mentioned in Mondays Game Plan that it has the potential to break above its own 3 week tight trigger of 69.03, which could also be interpreted as a bull flag formation. A move through 69.03 would have a measured move to 76. Ironic now that crude has seemed to stabilize here recently that the Aramco IPO may be put on the shelf. Lagging today were the utilities and healthcare sectors with the XLU and XLV surrendering .2 and .4% respectively.
As the major averages trading on the boring, dull side select names have made some major moves and then paused forming bullish continuation flag patterns. Below is a good example of the consumer electronics play DLB and how it appeared in our Monday 10/2 Game Plan. Keep in mind we have discussed how individuals are shifting from a more traditional retail clothing to one in which their experiences are moved. Whether this is out of necessity or not makes zero difference to us. We just focus on pure stock PRICE action and let others speculate about the real reasons behind the change. We spoke about NCLH recently and DLB is in that overall consumer arena where shoppers are spending their money on things other than flashy Micheal Jordan sneakers. DLB is now trading near 6 year highs and has taken out a bull flag pattern trigger of 58.40 on 10/12 and is now battling with the round 60 number. Last week demonstrated admirable relative strength up 3.4% after the prior 3 weeks fell by a combined 1.5% after the gigantic weekly advance of 15.5% ending 9/15.