Lululemon, Nuance Pull Back, Clean Energy Earns Top Ratings
The Nasdaq Composite has pulled back for two days in a row, providing a pause for one of the strongest stock cohorts in the market. Trading in neutral territory, the movement in the Nasdaq to a degree belies greater weakness beneath the surface, and some of this weakness – for example, in stocks trading in bull market territory – is likely worth paying attention to by short-term traders and active investors.
Pulling back by well over 1% in Wednesday’s trading, shares of Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) have closed lower for four days in a row. Now technically oversold, LULU has earned a positive, short-term edge of more than one and a quarter percent, and a two-point ratings upgrade to 8 out of 10, putting the stock in our “consider buying” category.
The last multi-day pullback in shares of LULU was back at the beginning of the month. Then, a three-day retreat took the stock to the edge of oversold territory before reversing in a strong, snapback rally that send Lululemon Athletica up for the next five days in a row to new, short-term highs.
Short-term weakness in Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) has resulted in the stock moving to the lowermost boundary of a trading range that extends back for more than a month. Down two in a row, and four days out of the last five, shares of Nuance Communications are back in oversold territory, with a positive, short-term edge of three-quarters of a percent. Midway through trading on Wednesday, the stock’s rating remained unchanged at a neutral, 6 out of 10, despite the stock’s pullback of more than two and a half percent.
Also closing lower for four out of the past five trading days are shares of Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (NASDAQ: CLNE). Unlike NUAN however, shares of CLNE are selling off in the wake of a rally to new, 52-week highs reached last week during a six-day sprint of more than 23%.
This profit-taking has taken Clean Energy Fuels into technically oversold territory, and earned the stock a major, two-point ratings upgrade from a neutral, 6 out of 10, to a “consider buying” 8 out of 10. Additionally, CLNE is set to take a positive edge of more than one and a half percent into Thursday’s trading.
Clean Energy Fuels has been trading in bull market territory since the second half of January, and has traded in technically oversold territory only once: at the end of the two-day dip that led to the stock’s late March climb to new, 52-week highs mentioned above.
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David Penn is Editor in Chief of TradingMarkets.com