Markets put in a nice showing Tuesday with good gains in the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 as they rose .6 and 1% respectively. We know their is a risk on appetite when they outperform and they are often leading indicators. The Russell 2000 is now back above its 50 day SMA and prior bull flag trigger of 1550 and once could make the argument that it was a bear trap on those who were stopped out on the breakout, but it is now 4% off lows made on 3/2 when it bounced off the round 1500 figure. The Dow and S&P 500 are in the early stages of carving out symmetrical triangles which could break either way, but they still reside below their 50 day SMAs currently. The Dow could get a lift from some higher priced components, as it is a price weighted index, with MCD and HD now 15 and 13% off their most recent 52 week highs. Neither has participated in the overall comeback and that heaviness could be a reason to avoid those names alone.
Looking at individual sectors bulls were happy to see the defensive groups at the bottom of the leaderboard with the staples, energy, healthcare and utilities being the only of the major S&P sectors to retreat or advance ever so slightly. The XLU slipped 1.4% and continues to be rejected at the very round 50 figure which remember is the area where a bear flag broke down in early February, a week BEFORE the overall markets slipped hard. Leading the way Tuesday were the materials as aluminum plays shined. AA is now well below a nice looking cup base breakout trigger of 50.41 taken out on 12/27 (base did trade nicely around the 40-50 numbers). Speaking off the very round numbers FCX is approaching the 20 figure which it was above intraday on five separate occasions in January, but had zero CLOSES above the number. Not to be ignored the cyclicals made their presence felt Tuesday with the XLY higher by .7% on the back of some nice retail showings from SFLY BBY OSTK and FIVE to name a few.
Technology remains hot and heavy and many keep pushing out the idea that the FANG names are doing the brunt of the lifting on the Nasdaq. Sure they are doing a great deal but it would be unfair to some secondary names that really are excelling. Below is the cloud play NTNX, and how it appeared in our Monday 3/5 Game Plan. Last Friday it CLOSED one penny below a 38.90 cup base pivot point and since then has taken off. It has advanced this week to the tune of almost 14% and foreshadowing may have come from the stock gaining ground the week ending 2/9 as the Nasdaq swooned lower. I have always been a big fan off names that shrug off overall market weakness and it is often a tell going forward, that they will impress mightily once the benchmarks catch their footing. On the weekly chart, below is the daily, the stock is now honing in our an additional buy point through a cup base trigger of 46.88 in a pattern 17 months long that began the week ending 10/7/16. That was just its second week after going public.