ChartSmarter Thursday Game Plan 5/8/14

Markets continued their recent bifurcation Wednesday as the Nasdaq slipped, and the S&P 500 manufactured a nice .6% gain. The Nasdaq is now lower by 2.6% YTD, and the S&P 500 is higher by 1.6%. The S&P 500 found good support at its 50 day SMA, and a look on its weekly chart shows decent consolidation of the week ending 4/18’s 2.7% advance. Volume was limp that week, but it was a holiday shortened one with Good Friday. Utilities were the best performing sector, as they have demonstrated decent leadership, an ominous sign? Not far behind the defensive utilities today was energy. We discussed this in Mondays Game Plan’s opening paragraph, and the group has shown some good moves this week with many in the sector reporting earnings. Tuesday saw EOG move higher by more than 4%, and today it handed the ball off to names like PXD DVN CHK that all gained between 4-5% after releasing numbers. Perhaps Gartman’s recent bearish energy call “fueled” the group north. I am not here to hate on the guy, I respect him, but his well publicized calls lately have not acted well. Perhaps they will soon. Not helping the Nasdaq today were drops by YHOO FB. YHOO dropped almost 7% undercutting its 200 day SMA in the process. This is the second time doing so exactly one month ago on 4/7, not a good technical sign at all. FB, the Nasdaq’s 5th largest component at nearly 2% of the index slid into bear market territory, down more than 20% from its most recent 52 week high. Will investors “like” the value, pun intended.