Market weakness continued to strike market, but selling volume remained light. The Nasdaq moved further away from support, all but confirming the channel break, but aslo dropping below its 50-day MA. Technicals are net negative, but intermediate-lenght stochastics have some way to go before becoming oversold. While the losses are quite orderly, the could continue for a number of days, if not weeks.

Bears were able to fire a shot across the bow of bulls with existing rallies for the likes of the Russell 2000 ($IWM) and Nasdaq slowed by channel breaks. While the breaks might be seen as bearish, more likely, these will represent a shift to a sideways trading range rather than a straight bearish reversal. The Russell 2000 has confirmed a break from its channel, but realistically, this channel has only been running since May, and breakout support around $188s is more important.  Today's volume ranked as distribution and technicals are net bearish, but with the 50-day MA nearby I would view this with a degree of optimism.

The market slip-and-slide continued. Markets that were trading at 20-day MAs now find themselves down at channel support, although in the case of the S&P, the support test is breakout support - not channel support. In the case of the S&P and Russell 2000 ($IWM), today's selling volume rose to register as distribution.  Today is a bit of a last chance saloon for the rising price channels for the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq, but aggressive traders can look to go long at channnel support.  In the case of the Russell 2000, theere was a clear breach of channel support intraday, but the end-of-day close was enough to consider the index still inside support, as was the case in early July when there was a similar intraday channel breach.  

Markets finished down on Friday, registering distribution for the Russell 2000 ($IWM) and S&P ($SPX), but not for the Nasdaq. From a support perspective, there undercuts of the 20-day MAs for the S&P and Nasdaq, with the Nasdaq finishing on its 50-day MA.

Looks like I haven't missed much since I have been away. The Nasdaq pitched sideways after tagging channel resistance. There was no change in the supporting technical picture. The S&P is running along channel resistance, drifting a little to the point of a weak MACD 'sell' trigger. However, the trend in On-Balance-Volume is nicely bullish. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) is trading in the middle of its rising channel, not doing a whole lot. If there is anything to focus on, selling of the past few days has skewed in favor of distribution, but price action hasn't broken. There is not a whole lot to add to this.  The prior trend is bullish and until we see some clear price + volume action to change this, then assume rallies will continue. Get a 50% discount on my Roth IRA with a 14-day free trial. Use coupon code fallondpicks at Get My Trades to get the discount. --- Follow Me on Twitter Investments are held in a pension fund on a buy-and-hold strateg

The headline would have been a small loss, but S&P action over the past week and a bit has been for an index running alongside upper channel resistance, looking ready to break through higher. Technicals remain net positive, although the MACD is close to a new 'sell' signal. Even if this was to materialise, I would be surprised if it brought any serious selling and may offer a better buy-the-dip opportunity.

It wasn't a cavalry charge, but buyers stepped in to break the two days of selling in the Nasdaq and Russell 2000. While buying volume was relatively light compared to last week's selling, it does give bulls a chance to continue the rally within in the rising channel. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) is steadily building its gains as it moves along in the middle of its channel. As long as momentum remains overbought it will give bulls the underlying demand to keep things rolling higher.