Markets held up relatively well Tuesday as the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 scored nice gains higher by .6 and .4% respectively. The Nasdaq CLOSED just above the round 7700 number and the tech heavy index is looking for its first four week winning streak since this January. The bull flag breakout which began at the very round 7000 figure on 5/3 broke above its 7450 pivot and has a measured move to 7900. Big names that will have a big say in its future direction include of course AAPL which retested a 190 bull flag breakout trigger on 6/8 which also filled in a small gap (it has a measured move of 30 handles). Semis certainly will make their presence felt too and today recorded a bullish hammer candle as it deals with the bearish engulfing candle from 6/7. It is still acting well POST breakout from its double bottom breakout trigger of 106.24 taken out on 5/16. The XBI could provide a boost too as it looks to move above a triple top at the 98 area.
Looking at individual sectors Tuesday it was utilities that rose a firm 1.2%. The XLU represents one of the weakest groups, so again leadership is suspect. The second and third best actors were better for the bulls as technology and cyclicals both gained .5% via the XLK and XLY. Financials and energy lagged as the XLK lost .4 and the XLE surrendered .8%. The XLE has been reeling since the 4.5% weekly bearish engulfing candle. Keep in mind the 78 level serves as a triple top dating back to December ’16. The ETF has now declined 10 of the last 15 sessions and to its credit it did successfully retest a cup with handle/bull flag trigger just below 75 on 5/25 and 5/29, but we know the best breakouts work right away so this stalling action needs to resolve itself shortly. Volume trends need to improve too as we have seen just one accumulation week in the last 7 months the week ending 5/11 which rose nearly 4%.
Footwear continues to gain traction as we have recently spoke about CROX and NKE. ADDYY a former best of breed name trades 13% off its most recent 52 week highs, but is digesting a 6 week winning streak that rose by more than a combined 20% the weeks ending between 3/16-4/20. Below is the chart of WWW and how it was presented in Monday 5/21 Game Plan. It is higher by nearly 2% this young week so far and that is on top of a current 5 week winning streak that has risen nearly 18%. Looking left on the chart one can see it is now comfortably above the 34 level, where it ran into problems in the past back in January ’14, April-May ’15 and again earlier this year before breaking above a cup base trigger of 33.92 on 6/1 and has since flown 6% above the suggested pivot.