Thursday began the confirmation of October swing lows with bullish piercing patterns and Friday kept this momentum running - even if there is still lots of work to do. The S&P closed at Thursday's highs and kept away from the latter's lows. Volume was a little lacking but technicals, aside from the MACD, are bearish. Monday's edge favors bulls.

The developing (major) swing low got a big boost with another sizable wide range, bullish piercing pattern - similar to the bullish reversal candlestick from October 31st. Again, cautious investors who have been buying the extremes should still be active, particularly in the Russell 2000. Yes, new lows are possible, but nobody can predict the future and you can only act on the present - and now is a good buying opportunity. The Russell 2000 was able to defend the mini-congestion zone from the end of October (the horizontal, blue hashed line). Rate-of-Change is still in the bear zone but relative performance is still positive and the MACD is clinging to a 'buy' trigger.

After returning from my brief vacation markets enjoyed decent gains which - over the last 3 days - have given back some of the advances. However, markets remain well positioned to confirm a swing low (even if October lows are breached) and investors should be buying stocks, particularly on days where losses of over1% or more are registered. Remember, this is buying for 5 years+ down the road - don't fret the daily noise. For pessimists, there is the Semiconductor Index and Copper prices.  Copper prices broke before Semiconductors as lower demand for the base metal ultimately reflected itself in lower demand for chips, which is hurting and will continue to hurt the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100. Keep an eye on this chart for a bottom. The likelihood is that more losses are on the cards for both copper and semiconductors.

The initial bounces off spike lows have encountered their first major test of supply with pushes into newly drawn channel resistance. All indices are mapping this price action. First up is the S&P. Today's action finished with a spike high bang on channel resistance. Technicals are negative with the exception of relative performance, which has been tracking higher since September. Shorts may look to attack here and are likely expected to do so - if they don't emerge then we can think about Fibonacci retracements of the entire September-October move.