The week started with bearish engulfing patterns for all indices. Hardest hit was the Nasdaq as it failed to hold on to morning gains triggered off the gap.  The drop was attributed to Jerome Powell's second term appointment, but the double top off resistance offered a more technical signal.   The Nasdaq is primed to retest 15,550 after failing to hold new all-time highs. Selling volume registered as distribution, but aside from the MACD 'sell', the technical picture was unchanged.

All action appears to be focused on the Russell 2000 as it drifted toward breakout support as other indices protect their swing low rallies. The Russell 2000 nearly tagged $232 breakout support on today's spike low, but rallied back to its 20-day MA by the close.  In the case of the Russell 2000, where volume spiked it did so on days of distribution selling. We now have 'sell' triggers in the MACD, On-Balance-Volume and ADX.  Not surprising, relative performance has shifted away from the Russell 2000 towards Tech and Large Cap indices. 

Since October there has been a back-and-forth tussle in the relative strength leadership between the Nasdaq and Russell 2000.  The Russell 2000 awoke from its slumber at the start of November and this helped drive the broader rally across markets as it adopted a leadership role.  The breakout in the Russell 2000 has since drifted into a consolidation, and this stall has returned a leadership opportunity back to the Nasdaq and S&P - one which the Nasdaq is taking.  The Nasdaq has bullish technicals and a relative uptick against Small and Large Caps. Today's gain didn't reach 1% or register as accumulation, but it's getting closer to challenging the November peak high of 16,053. With buyers pumping money into the index it may be the first to make new all-time highs. 

It was a troubling week or bulls as the long standing sequence of gains banked since late October gave way to a couple of days of sharp profit taking.  Friday's action attempted to draw a line under this selling but it remains to be seen how effective this will prove to be in the weeks ahead.  On a positive front, buying volume ranked as accumulation across lead indices.  The Nasdaq closed the small gap between Tuesday and Wednesday's sell off, but it might have a harder time getting above last week's highs, which were initially marked by the neutral doji at peak high of 16,053. Technicals are nicely positive and while the index hasn't yet regained its relative leadership role vs the Russell 2000 it has made up some ground on it.