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Financial Review: Ten-year yield now higher 10 of the last 12 weeks and jump of 5% last week. In fact, WEEKLY gains of 6.6 and 9.6% weeks ending 9/24 and 10/8 as well.

Energy Review: Notice the hit or miss nature of the group. Six of the last 7 years sector was the worst or second-worst major S&P actor of 11. Great action this year obviously and last 2 times it was the best behaved on a YTD basis in 2007 and 2016 the XLE fell the next year.

Exploration Excellence: While many like to play the mean reversion game, I prefer to buy strength. In my opinion trading instruments act both weak and strong for a reason. Of course, it is not always known why, but the interpretation is seen in PRICE action. Looking at the major S&P sector leaderboard on a YTD basis energy should come out on top, barring some very heavy Q4 weakness as the XLE is up 50%, and its next closest competitor in the XLF is higher by 30%. Peering deeper into the energy arena the two largest sub-sectors are exploration and equipment, via the XOP and OIH. Both are up well over 100% YTD, not a typo, but the XOP has been acting better as of late, especially during the summer softness in energy. On a 1 and 3 month look back period the XOP is up 20 and 4% respectively while the OIH has gained 12% over the last one month, and is DOWN 7% over the last 3 months. As the XOP grapples with the very round par number and trades just 1% off recent 52-week highs (ETF was over 300 in early 2014) the OIH is 15% off its peak made in June. Devote your capital to where it is treated best. That means exploring the leading E&P names. 

Earnings Hangover: With the largest week of earnings reports behind us, let us take a look back at some that impressed this week, and others that fell flat. Below is the chart of FB that slipped 4% on Thursday, but still looks attractive. It is just 6% off all-time highs and this week lost 3.6%, giving back less than half of the prior week's advance. The ones most highlighted are often the biggest losers and they were delivered by AMZN and PINS this week. SHOP lost 9% this week following a bearish engulfing candle on Monday and fell every day last week. It did meet a measured move to 1600 from a bullish ascending triangle break above 1300 (pattern began at very round 1000 number on 3/26). Others worth mentioning are AAPL, which could not penetrate the round 150 number to the upside on 7/15 or 7/26, but above that carries a measured move to 175 through a bull flag. Less heralded moves last week were LOGI which looks good on a risk/reward basis near its 200 day (I was WRONG about this name recently), and AMKR among a strong semi group just above a 24.10 double bottom pivot, and has added 12% alone the last 2 weeks. Finally, one to watch this coming week is CGNX which broke firmly above the very round 90 number and double bottom pivot of 88.96 (it REPORTS Thursday after the close). The stock showed solid relative strength up 5% last week as the Nasdaq fell 1.1%.

"Old Tech" Bifurcation: Friday witnessed some contrasting action in some of the bigger, mature tech players. Big Blue was feeling blue to end the week falling almost 5% in the second-largest daily volume of 2021, trailing just the negative earnings reaction on 1/22 that slumped 10%. If the name gets close to filling the gap from the 4/19 session consider that a gift. On the other hand, ORCL put up a combined 5% advance the last 2 days this week, and it filled an upside gap from 6/15. It CLOSED above the former bullish ascending triangle pivot of 80, and for me, there are better stocks to play. Below is one of them with the chart of QCOM. It is 15% off most recent 52 week highs, lagging as the SMH is just 1% off its peak. The stock has registered back-to-back 3.5% WEEKLY gains, not long after 3 very taut WEEKLY CLOSES all within just .28 of each other the weeks ending 5/28-6/11. This name could be a big 2nd half winner.