It was not to be for what had been a relatively orderly bounce from May lows.  Friday's trading drove the nail into the coffin of the 2-week long bull flags with a 'gap-and-run' lower, which now puts the May lows under pressure. If bulls are to get out of this with the prospects of a double bottom then today or tomorrow has to see a spike low, preferably one with a wide intraday range which capitulates the last of the weak hands.  But if we see another day like Friday, then it's back to the drawing board as to looking for a bottom. For the Nasdaq, we have the May spike low of 11,035, but really, it's the candlestick real body support of 11,152 which has to hold on a closing price basis - spike lows below this are fine (and are to be welcomed). We have technical pressure with the uptick in bearish trend strength, the relative 'sell' trigger against the S&P, the 'sell' signal in On-Balance-Volume, and a weak 'buy' signal in the MACD which i

The last few days have seen the S&P and Nasdaq consolidate their bounce with 'bull flags'. Both markets are coiling in preperation for a follow through move - presumably higher.  In the case of the Nasdaq,  we have 'buy' triggers in the MACD, On-Balance-Volume and +DI/-DI - although stochastics are struggling to cross the mid-line. The index is outperforing the S&P which should favor a move higher and a challenge of the 50-day MA. 

When you see 'black' candlesticks; i.e a higher open, a lower close, but a close still above the prior day's close - you need to pay attention. The only good thing is that these warnings typically only matter when 'black' candesticks occur at the end of a rally - not in the middle of a mini-consolidation.  For the Nasdaq, the 'black' candlestick didn't undercut breakout support and volume was relatively light.  Technicals were unchanged, the index is still outperforming the S&P but we are still awaiting a new 'buy' signal in On-Balance-Volume.

Markets have effectively cleared the first hurdle of the most recent swing high. Speculative indices - the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 - have also started to outperform the more conservative, S&P. The S&P is about to edge past declining resistance defined by the March-April highs (4,637), something the Nasdaq has already achieved, but the Russell 2000 has yet to do.  When it does it will soon come up against the 50-day MA, then the next real challenge is the 4,300 level, which was resistance at the end of April/beginning of May. 

Today wasn't packing much volume, but buyers were able to recover the last two days of losses as the rally off May lows continues. I'm liking the action in the indices even if the tone in the world of social media remains negative. The Nasdaq rallied off breakout support with an acceleration in the MACD trigger and a new 'buy' trigger in relative performance against the S&P.

In many respects, today's action was better than Friday's in that effectively confirmed the strength of end of week buying from last week.  For the case of the Nasdaq and S&P we had inside (doji) days.  Ideally, the "bullish harami cross" occurs at a swing low, but what we have is something similar when considered in the context of the decline from March highs.  It will soon be time to raise the stop of the index trades .  The Nasdaq is holding on to its breakout with the 'buy' triggers in the MACD and On-Balance-Volume retained. 

It's early days but Friday's close into the long weekend generated some solid bottom breakouts.  The Nasdaq, S&P and Russell 2000 all made positive resistance breakouts from their swing lows as technicals began to improve.  The Nasdaq closed above 12,000, and cleared declining resistance established from the March high. This came with a MACD trigger 'buy' and On-Balance-Volume 'buy' trigger.  This is looking better than it did in March when a similar breakout was attempted, but the index is now trading at better value.