Good evening StockBandits!
After some post-Fed hesitation on Thursday, stocks got back on their horse Friday. The bulk of the gains came by way of an opening gap to the upside, although for 3 of the 4 I watch, additional strength arrived beyond the open. The NAZ was the only exception to that, as an afternoon pullback left it still in the green on the close, but a few points beneath the open.
Both the NAZ and DJIA were each 90 points from their all-time highs at their best levels of the day. The big difference between them though was that the DJIA’s high was set just 3 weeks ago, whereas the NAZ high was set back in 2000. It’s amazing that it has taken over 15 years and still isn’t quite back to its peak. Definitely something to think about when deciding whether or not to continue holding a losing position.
The small-cap RUT continues to run and the NAZ is still acting great, which separates those two from the blue-chip DJIA and S&P 500. Each of the latter are approaching their recent highs, so it’s just about decision time on a breakout to new highs vs. staying inside the ranges between the February high and the March pullback low.
With the market strength we’ve seen in the past several sessions, my bearish watchlist doesn’t contain many stocks. I’m trying to stick primarily with bullish setups, although I’d still like to see unanimous breakouts among the averages to feel better about aggressively getting long.
Let’s get to the charts.
Bullish Watch (click for charts)
Bearish Watch (click for charts)
Trade Like A Bandit!
Jeff
