Strong finish to week for the S&P and Nasdaq

Friday picked up on Thursday's gains to push back on the support break. There hasn't yet been a challenge on earlier 'bull flags' resistance, but we will likely see how much resistance there is at these levels early next week. 

In the case of the Nasdaq, there was a successful test of the 200-day MA, that came with a new On-Balance-Volume 'buy' trigger. However, there is no pending MACD trigger 'buy', so it's going to take a few more days of positivity to drive this.  The index is clinging on to its outperformance against the S&P. 


The S&P did manage to clear resistance of its 'bull trap', but not the double top from November/December. Technicals are net negative, including an underperformance relative to the Russell 2000. 


The Russell 2000 returned to its 50-day MA after a series of days trading at a level previously associated with the November/December swing highs. Technicals are mostly positive, but the MACD remains negative. The index is outperforming the Nasdaq. 

We need to see more from the indices as Friday's gains managed to stall the decline in markets. The moving averages are proving to be critical support, but they need to be launch points for rallies, not support which is constantly tested. We have seen the positive MA test in the S&P and Nasdaq, but now we need to see the push off. 

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Investments are held in a pension fund on a buy-and-hold strategy.

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