So we're at the point in the quarter, earnings season, at which I don't like to focus on the technicals. The moves over the next three weeks will be primarily driven by the big earnings news of each day. We saw that today with the market getting off to a strong start thanks to Alcoa's (AA) report. Alcoa gapped up to new 52-week+ high but then faded the rest of the session. By the close it had fallen back under its September. While it still gained 1% on the day the intraday action was nothing to write home about. I think action lie this may be common this quarter, especially for stocks which are near 52-week highs.
Some of the leading stocks, like GOOG and AAPL, closed down on the day. That may be a sign that the market's getting a little tired here. The indices showed some indecision today. The S&P 500 was able to break it's pattern of lower-highs by one point before selling took it back down. The Nasdaq fell one point shy of making a higher-high and the Russell 2000 fell about 15 shy. Both the SPY and QQQQ made near-doji patterns which is a sign of an intraday stalemate/indecision. So there are some mixed messages out there. We'll just have to see where earnings takes us.
No changes
| Trend | Nasdaq | S&P 500 | Russell 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long-Term | Up | Up | Up |
| Intermediate | Up | Up | Up |
| Short-term | Up | Up | Up |
(+) Indicates an upward reclassification today
(-) Indicates a downward reclassification today
Lat Indicates a Lateral trend
*** I'm simply using the indices' relations to their 200, 50 and 10-day moving averages to tell me the long, intermediate and short-term trends, respectively.
Interesting observation. You would have thought the market would have taken off on the news, instead. The bulls must have been disappointed.
How were those support and resistance levels calculated?
In the Alcoa chart, to clarify.
Joey,
I just eyeballed them. The top line is at the September intraday high. The lower line is at the September closing high. You can also see that there were to opens right near that lower line. Both of those days closed lower, so that looks to me like pretty good resistance.
You WOULD have to remind me of how I missed that AA fade! D'oh!