I'm taking a little vacation so this will probably be my last post for about a week or so. But never fear, my friend and fellow market enthusiast Duru is going to be filling in for me while I'm gone. I'd tried to warn him that once you start blogging you never go back but he just wouldn't listen. So keep stopping by to check out Duru's missives. Maybe, if I'm really bored and something major happens I'll make a post from vacation but I can't see either of those things happening (certainly not the former). But I will be checking in to see what gems Duru has to offer.
So on to today's action -- I was weary of the gap up into resistance this morning and my concerns turned out to be well founded. The market gave back the bulk of the early gains as it ran out of steam just after 10:00. The S&P managed to close above its trend channel but the Nasdaq failed right at its 200-day moving average. All of the indices, and a ton of stocks, made shooting star (or shooting star-like) patterns today. Those bearish candlesticks combined with being at resistance and overbought stochastic indicators tell me that the market is probably ready for a bit of consolidation. (Perhaps my vacation was well timed.)
I should point out that the QQQ/NDX cleared its 200-day moving average on Friday. It's looking a lot like the S&P 500 right now so maybe they will drag the rest of the market up with them. As always though, the coming flood of earnings reports will trump the technicals. I'll be back just in time for the excitement of earnings season.
