Do The Markets Have Another Push Higher In The Works?

  • September 20, 2002
  • Paul Letourneau

At the midpoint on this Triple Witching Friday,
the markets are reversing from their worst levels of the day. There is
volatility and strong volume thus far. At the beginning of the session the
futures helped open the markets to the positive side, but continued talk about
weaker earnings — Duke Energy
(
DUK |
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PowerRating) and Bowater
(
BOW |
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PowerRating) — and
talk about war in Iraq have shadowed any rally thus far.

On the Nasdaq Composite
(
COMPX |
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PowerRating), it
has an initial resistance at 1235 and secondary resistance at 1242. Tech stocks
have been helping the markets some what, but the real winners have been Food,
Beverages, Cruise Lines, Defense, Integrated Oil, Steel,
Railroad, Paper, Chemicals, Homebuilders, Healthcare
and REITs. Dragging on the markets are
Tobacco, Utilities
(
$UTY.X |
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PowerRating), Retail
(
$RTY.X |
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Storage, Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
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(
$BTK.X |
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(
$XAU.X |
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PowerRating).

Catalina Marketing
(
POS |
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PowerRating) is breaking
down from a cup-and-handle pattern. POS was in the process of working its way
out of the handle, but now has reversed and broken below a key 38% retracement
level (drawn from the Jan. high to the Aug. low). Catalina Marketing is down
1.71 today at 27.50 with heavy volume. The next support level is at 26.00.

Tenet Healthcare
(
THC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is pulling back to
the 20-day moving average after a thrust higher. The stock is holding a


3-month
relative strength rank of 85 from TradingMarkets.com.

Nasdaq Breadth:

Adv: 1586     UpVol: 7592293

Dec: 1494     DnVol: 2932069

Net: +92       Net: +4660224

NYSE Breadth:

Adv: 1582     UpVol: 5423058

Dec: 1520     DnVol: 5432760

Net: +62       Net: -9702

The September Triple Witching Day has been up
four and down seven in the last 11 years.