After Friday's strong finish there was the potential for bears to stew over the weekend and attack on Monday, and although sellers were able to do some damage - they weren't able to do more than they did at the open. Given that, the Russell 2000 was able to protect itself from the sellers and managed to make a modest gain as it looks ready to challenge its 200-day MA, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Technicals are net bullish and relative performance has accelerated in the latter part of the month to its peers.

The volume was light on Friday, but gains were enough to negate Thursday's selling.  Markets have already recovered from the break of the loss of June's swing low, and are now looking at a challenge of 50-day MAs.  The Nasdaq is on a 'buy' trigger, but all other technicals are bearish.  Relative performance losses have accelerated, but the broader picture is more bullish, and On-Balance-Volume is close to a new 'buy' trigger. The double October swing high is still there as resistance, but a close above 11,210 would confirm a sequence of higher highs and higher lows. 

It was a mixed day. Much of what happened started positively, but by the close of business, indices were back where they started the day.  The S&P 'gravestone' doji could be considered a bearish 'harami cross', with stochastics [39,1] on the mid-line and standard [14,3] stochastics overbought. if this proves to be true (and bearish 'harami crosses' tend to be reliable reversal patterns), then tomorrow will be a down day.  Add to this, On-Balance-Volume has returned to a 'sell' trigger, with a sharp loss in relative performance to the S&P.

A good start to the week has indices ready to sweep past the most recent swing high from October 5th.  The first index to attempt this will be the S&P.  It's ideally positioned to make that break tomorrow, which would not only take out the swing high, but also break through declining resistance from the August high.  There is a clue as to what may happen here.

There was a solid finish on Friday across all lead indices which did much to undo the prior two days of selling and push indices into a challenge of Tuesday's topping patterns.  The accompanying higher volume was the result of options expiration, but for recent days where we have see higher volume, it has come from the buy side. The S&P was able initiate its gain from its 20-day MA, but the real fun will come if it's able to close above 3,800.  There is a MACD trigger 'buy' to work with - although it's a weak signal because it's below the bullish zero line.  Other technicals are negative, including a sharp drop in the On-Balance-Volume trend.

The Russell 2000 has been bucking the trend by enjoying a relative strength advantage over peer indices, but today was the first sign that there may be a shift away from growth stocks to more defensive large cap stocks in the near term - not the best timing given the proximity of support. Today's action generated a new 'sell' trigger in On-Balane-Volume and effectively confirmed a 'bull trap' of Tuesday's breakout.

It was a day when markets closed below their open, but above yesterday's close; this set-up is typically bearish and shows as a black candlestick in a chart.  The problem is that buyers have been building a nice edge since the big bullish engulfing patterns from last week. The expectation for tomorrow is a day of selling - so if this doesn't happen then bulls can look to the rest of the week with optimism. The Russell 2000 is the index to watch.  In addition to today's gain it also managed a break from the declining channel on higher volume accumulation.  Technicals have shifted more in favor of bulls with 'buy' signals in the MACD, On-Balance-Volume and the ADX with sharp gains in relative performance to peer indices.