Equipment Clues:
Within the semiconductor group, equipment is heavily followed. Wednesday witnessed a nice earnings reaction from ASML. It still trades 29% off most recent 52-week highs but it is attempting to make a stand with a gain of 6% this week so far, and not long after a 16% advance the week ending 3/18. (peers KLAC 24, AMAT 29, and LRCX 34% off their respective annual peaks). These names were powerful performers with ASML traveling from the rough 200 to 900 figures between March ’20-September ’21. For this current bounce to hold the very round 600 number must hold in my humble opinion. The aforementioned peers, like ASML, are each carving out bullish engulfing candles and are good areas to start longs with stops below the recent lows. Other chip plays like NVDA and AMD displayed reversals Wednesday, with the former registering a bearish engulfing candle and the latter should be viewed cautiously until the very round par number is taken out.