Strugglers And Consolidators
A few of our high RS breakout stocks
are showing signs of struggling a bit at the highs, a sign that partial
profit-taking might be in line for the intermediate-term trader. Meanwhile,
others are consolidating nicely on low volume.
Reason For Waiting Out Confessional Season
Stocks fell broadly Monday, weighed down by
confessional season warnings in the chip-gear industry, downgrades and selling
in biotechs.
Techs To Open Lower
Stocks appeared set to open lower Friday after positive overnight news from Intel but a warning from
Juniper Networks.
How Warnings Directed The Show
Stocks fell Friday as a spate of tech
warnings took their toll on the Nasdaq stocks and semis in particular. Volume was light.
Strong Medicine
The market served up a fresh dish of
breakouts among the high relative strength stocks Friday even as the major
averages did their best to mask this ongoing intermediate-term rally.
When Bad News Is Bullish…
A rally in semiconductors spurred the
Nasdaq into the plus column Thursday while the Dow Jones industrials treaded
water, held back by Philip Morris.
Here, Semi Semi
For those of you itching to play the
semis for the medium term, a few are starting to form above their 200-day moving
averages. I’m wary of this area because so many components are under tons of
overhead resistance. One possibility, if it can work a bit more on completing a
base, is Axcelis Technologies.
Soft Tech Open
Stocks on Thursday appeared headed for a
soft open, particularly in the tech patch. A raft of retailers came out with
same-store sales reports for the month of May.
A Second Wave?
While I’m not a
short-term trader per se, I do take profits when the stock price action warrants
it. Sometimes, rotation will occur within a rally. This is not ideal. The I-T
trader wants industry leadership to hold up and lead for the medium term. But
at times, you may find yourself selling stocks acting tried after for
smaller-than-usual pops, particularly if a new crop of set-ups appears to be
forming.
More Breakouts & Set-ups
The high relative strength stocks
continued to head higher Tuesday with a number of those names emerging from or
forming bases.
Tech ETFs Up
The tech-focused tradable funds posted
gains Tuesday while the utility ETFs eased.
Biotech ETFs Lead Tradable Funds
The biotech-focused exchange-traded
funds led their peers Monday after a favorable write-up in Barron’s on two
big-cap biotechs, Biogen and Genentech, boosted the industry group.