It was coming, but only because markets have performed strongly since November lows. We have seen breakouts in the Russell 2000 ($IWM) and equal-weighted S&P, but both have drifted below their breakout levels. It wouldn't take much to recover these loses, but buyers still have some heavy lifting to do. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) closed with an indecisive doji after two days of selling, but I would consider an indecisive doji at breakout support more bullish. Technicals are nest positive, but On-Balance-Volume is close to a 'sell' trigger. However, the index is enjoying relative outperformance.

Friday's losses gave back some of the early week gains, but losses weren't enough to derail the bullishness on the week. The strongest index was the Russell 2000 ($IWM). It started last week pressuring $252 resistance, managed to break mid-week, but got caught up in the Friday sell-off in Semiconductors. Technicals are net bullish with momentum in overbought territory - a key driver for breakouts, and Friday's loss didn't weaken that. For Monday, watch for a spike low below $252, where anything sub-$250 might be an opportunity to grab a long position for an upcoming Santa rally.

Indices are making their way higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average making a clean break of resistance on modest volume. The heavy volume gains came yesterday for this index with technicals net bullish. The Dow breakout looks good, but the weekly chart points to resistance. The index could run steadily higher along this resistance line, but a breakout would accelerate the advance.

The volume wasn't great, but the Russell 2000 ($IWM) is again challenging $252 resistance as sellers seemed reluctant to take profits. We may see volume if $252 is breached, but it's got to get there. The other beneficiary was Bitcoin ($BTCUSD), it was struggling a little but is now challenging the last swing high. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) has returned to an overbought state with the MACD above the bullish zero line. The index has outperforming the Nasdaq since bouncing off November lows. Breakouts come from an overbought state and the technical picture now is better than it was in mid-October, the last time it was challenging $252s.

There wasn't a whole lot of action in markets on Friday, but the breakout from the swing low in Bitcoin drifted below breakout support, but not enough to suggest it's done. The breakout failure needs to be watched because it will impact confidence in the Nasdaq and Semiconductor Index. The Nasdaq didn't post a big gain on Friday, but it helped build on the breakout of declining resistance. Volume rose in confirmed accumulation as the MACD trigger line returned above the bullish zero line (although the MACD trigger 'buy' occurred below the zero line, so it's building off a weak buy signal). Technicals are net bullish. The index would benefit from a solid white candlestick; existing shorts have no wiggle room and would be key contributors to this buying. Also, because of this buying, we are again in the 15% of historic price extremes relative to its 200-day MA (dating back to 1971). The S&P has been matching the Nasdaq, but Friday's fini...

The Russell 2000 ($IWM) has been the index to make all the running and today finally saw some modest accumulation. The index is well set to breakout, but it's also 14% above its 200-day MA, which puts it above 90% of historic price action dating back to 1987; if it gets to $258.25 it will be above 95% of historic price action, and at $276.76 it's 99%. The last time the index did that was April 2021...