Market Summary

It was another good week in the market with green in the weekly column for all the followed markets. Gasoline and the emerging market ETF EEM topped the list as best price performers and the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ were the laggards but still in positive territory. The only loser was the GLD down about half of last weeks gains. The markets are continuing to show signs of strength and another week of gains as we chew away at key resistance levels. Click on table to enlarge.

Comparing the sector performance graph with the one from last week shows 2%+ increases in Technology, Basic Materials, and Services which remain the strongest sectors. Utilities made an impressive gain of 4% moving into the 6th place from the 8th place position last week and passing up Financials which made a modest gain of 0.4% for the week. Click on graph to enlarge.

The daily chart of the S&P 500 below shows that while we did break down from the rising wedge chart pattern two weeks ago with that large red candle there was no follow through to the down side and we formed a rising channel with no significant movement down on the MACD. We have essentially been going sideways in what may be called a consolidation pattern. And as we did close above the February high of 875.01 we now have a shot of going for the January 06, 2009 high of 943.85. Will we go straight there or will we have a pull back first is the big question. I thought we were going to get more down side movement with the break of the rising wedge formation but that did not happen. A break above last weeks high of 888.70 and we are more likely to see continued movement to the upside. A break below last weeks low of 847.12 and we could see further sell off to the down side. The NASDAQ is at the level of its falling 200 day moving average and so this is a logical place for the markets to back off from. Which way we go we will just have to wait and see. Click on chart to enlarge.