A Resilient Stock Market Barely Blinks At Fresh Bearish Signals – Above the 40 (January 3, 2020)

The S&P 500 (SPY) lost 0.7% and closed right at the lower boundary of its upper Bollinger Band. The pattern left behind an island reversal.

AT40 = 63.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 60.3% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 14.0Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary The stock market started the new decade with wild swings. After starting the first trading day of the decade with a 0.8% gain … Read more

Forex Critical: A Sharp Rally Ends for the South African Rand

It was just two weeks ago when I pointed out an important technical change in the U.S. dollar against the South African rand (USD/ZAR). The USD/ZAR currency pair proceeded to decline nearly straight down until it reached toward the July lows. Based on the strong rebound underway, I am assuming the rally in the rand … Read more

Meritage Homes: A Markdown for Slower Growth Ahead

Meritage Homes (MTH) reported earnings two days before October 25th when iShares US Home Construction (ITB) first challenged its climactic January, 2018 high. At the time, MTH was in the middle of an impressive post-earnings rebound. At its intraday, post-earnings low, MTH perfectly tested support at its 50-day moving average (DMA). However, the moment of truth … Read more

Cocoa: The End of a Breakout Starts A Buying Opportunity

The iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) has sold off for 6 of the last 7 trading days on extremely high volume. Friday's 1.2% loss took NIB to its 200DMA support.

A Breakout and Reversal The price of cocoa has had a wild two months. Last month’s breakout quickly turned into a fade and an outright sell-off in December. The result for the iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) is a complete reversal of the breakout, a return to the bottom of the previous consolidation range, … Read more

The Power of 100: Nike, Carmax, and Starbucks

I believe there is an old Wall Street adage that describes the inevitability of a stock hitting $100 once it gets “close enough” to that price level. One hundred is a nice round number, and it looks like a major (psychological) milestone. So when both Nike (NKE) and Carmax (KMX) suffered post-earnings pullbacks from around … Read more