Shorts will have been happy with today's action; small losses, an attempt to rally in the morning cut short, and late afternoon selling suggesting 'those in the know' were playing the side of the market they wanted to be. None of this changed much on the grander picture, which means bears may can sneak another few days like Wednesday under the radar before the retail market takes notice. The Semiconductor index was again the one where bears were finding it hard to remain orderly in the move to the exits. An undercut of the 50-day MA was a little too easy, although 0.5%+ gain today would see this important support level regained. The index looks on course to turn technically net bearish over the next few days, which would be reasonable expectation for further declines.

It's not a significant breakdown, but the Semiconductor index broke below wedge support, bringing it back to its 50-day MA. The last major break of the 50-day MA was back in August, when in gapped down to form a significant swing low. Support at 492 is more important than the wedge support lost today, but it does set a continued bearish tone for the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100.

A late day sell off took indices to their lows.  Carl Icahn's opinion on the market was enough to send some shareholders running for the hills, but only the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 came out with any significant bearish tone.  Both of these indices are on MACD trigger 'sell' signals dating back to early November. The Nasdaq breakout from last week was undone by today's selling, leaving a 'bull trap' and a possible (aggressive) shorting opportunity. However, the broader bull trend is dominant, and any short play would need to be assessed within this larger trend.  As for a downward target, the 20-day MA should see a test tomorrow, but the 50-day MA is a more attractive proposition.

If one was to only look at Daily Charts, all looks well: new highs, technicals net bullish, decent volumes.  Looking at the Weekly Charts offers similar optimism: well maintained trends dating back to 2011, sustainable (i.e. non parabolic) ascents, firm technicals. The only thing indicating a wobble are breadth metrics. The change in breadth metrics isn't outright bearish, and in itself may offer indices the basis for another big leg up, but the divergence to price is unusual.  It has expressed itself more in supporting technicals of breadth metrics, rather than the breadth metrics themselves. For example, the Percentage of Nasdaq Stocks above the 50-day MA peaked in late 2012 at 80%, but has struggled through 2013 to make a sustained move above 70%. It currently lies at 60%, which for a market pushing new all-time highs, is not particularly healthy.  In addition, the MACD histogram is narrowing into a coil and the trend for intermediate stochastics [39,1] points to a downward

Large Caps made their breaks yesterday, today was the turn of the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100. The Nasdaq 100 breakout coincided with a second, relative strength swing back to Tech indices (from Small and Large Caps). Despite the swing, the Nasdaq hasn't returned to a MACD trigger 'buy,' and trend strength is weakening as determined by the falling ADX.

Well, shorts would have had a very short-term trade; the need for tight stops apparent after today's action. Indices powered in afternoon trading to fresh breakouts, setting in motion the next phase of the rally. The cleanest breakout belonged to the S&P. It didn't quite come with a MACD trigger 'buy', but this is likely tomorrow.

The scale of losses wasn't major, but there was a confirmed distribution day in the S&P (accumulation in the Nasdaq), only because Veteran's day volume was light. The S&P hasn't cleared its handle; neither has it negated its MACD trigger 'sell'.