Finnies Swimming Upstream:
An old belief that I have not heard mentioned in some time, is that any rally without the financials participation should be viewed as suspect. With their recent, sanguine action perhaps we will be hearing how that may benefit the recent powerful rally off the late October lows. The XLF has now advanced 12 of the last 15 weeks, with the weeks ending 12/8 and 12/22 falling but CLOSING near highs for the WEEKLY range, losing mere pennies. The MONTHLY chart below shows the ETF reaching for a fourth consecutive advance in February, which would be its first jump of that kind in 3 years. The top holding in the ETF is BRKB, which represents more than 13%, and it like many other instruments is dealing with round number theory at the 400 figure, but give it credit for acting well POST breakout from a cup with handle of 369.47 from 1/23. The best that could happen here is for some sideways consolidation and a bull flag to shape. JPM, the second largest component, is perhaps giving some foreshadowing as to what the XLF may do on its MONTHLY chart, which has broken firmly above a cup with handle (notice how round number theory came into play at the bottom of the cup at 100 in September-October 2022).