ChartSmarter Tuesday Game Plan 4/11/17

Markets essentially finished flat after spending time in both positive and negative territory Monday. The Nasdaq continues to have issues CLOSING above the round 5900 number as it was above intraday 4 of the last 6 sessions with zero finishes above it and it posted its third consecutive spinning top candle, which often signals an impending change ion direction. Of course the benchmarks have been doing little of that as it remains in “climb the wall of worry” mode. It was military action and the employment number recently and soft retail sales numbers, but it manages to shrug off the concerns. The S&P 500 has now touched its 50 day SMA the last 3 days, but it has now made 3 lower highs since being rejected at the round 2400 number on 3/1. Looking at individual sectors energy continues to lead the way and the XLE was the best actor with the XLE advancing .8 % and it is wrestling with its downward sloping 50 day SMA which it has been underneath for more than 2 months now (below is the chart of former best of breed PDCE and how it appeared in our Thursday 4/6 Game Plan and looks to be moving north after a recent double bottom near the round 60 figure). Healthcare has been making it a recent habit for acting soft and the XLV fell .2%, achieving the worst group of the day, tied with technology. Over the last one month period it is one of only 3 of the major S&P sectors to lose ground dropping 1.9% (the others are the industrials and financials which lost .3 and 5% respectively). A potential positive development was the action in the transports Monday with the IYT higher by .8% and it is looking to challenge its 50 day SMA as it attempts to build the right side of its cup base, although it has the look of a V shape which can be failure prone.