Stocks had a historic crash in March, and a historic bounce last week. Now the market is trying to hold a level that could determine where it goes over the next few weeks: 2467 on the S&P 500.
This was the peak on Thursday, March 19, shortly before the index crashed below the December 2018 low. Prices returned to test it on March 25 before continuing their recent...
Advanced Micro Devices was the top performing member of the S&P 500 in both 2018 and 2019. It’s holding its own again this year by simply being flat while the broader index is down more than 20 percent.
The semiconductor company also never closed below its 200-day simple moving average. (According to TradeStation data, barely 6 percent of the S&P 500 is currently...
At times like this, with the vast majority of stocks below their 200-day simple moving averages (SMA), a name like Zynga stands out.
The video-game developer has consolidated in a key price zone for the last 10 months. It gapped higher on a strong earnings report in early February and then slid along with the rest of the market as coronavirus spread.
But it...
One of the biggest questions after a correction like we just had is: What to buy on the rebound? Lots of stocks are trying to bounce, but which are more likely to perform the best?
Longer-term charts can help answer the question. Let’s compare two very different corners of the market: The Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) and the Russell 2000 (IWM).
QQQ barely hit a new...
False breakdowns and false breakouts can be some of the most powerful reversal patterns in the market.
We saw the start of one last Friday, when the S&P 500 closed below the key 2347 low from December 2018. Many traders had been watching that line in the sand as key support since the selloff began weeks ago.
The bears managed to score some early victories...
Tesla was one of the biggest movers in late 2019 and early 2020, more than tripling in value on a monster short squeeze. TradeStation highlighted the trend in early December and now it's back on our radar.
TSLA has pulled back to an area where two levels are in play:
First, it probed its 200-day moving average yesterday for the first time since October. ( Click...
Target reported decent earnings this week, but not a lot of buyers showed up. Now traders may want to watch for a potential breakdown with the big-box retailer near a key price zone.
TGT gapped from $86 to $100 last August on signs that its big digital push had paid off. It followed that with another strong quarterly report on November 20.
Since then, however,...
Relative Strength shows when a stock is outperforming peers. It can be very useful when the market corrects, like we saw last week. Crisis often turns into opportunity once the dust settles.
One of the biggest surprises from RS recently is the strength in Chinese names. Despite coronavirus originating on the Mainland, many of the country's big liquid stocks have...
Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies has had bad times and good times since its IPO last May. First, it had to cut its offer price. Then it fell all the way down to the mid-20s as investors worried about its profitability and sprawling operations.
But one by one, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has moved to address those issues. He's exited non-core businesses and...
Nvidia is one the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 over the past year, trailing only Advanced Micro Devices among the semiconductors. Now the coronavirus pullback may be providing an opportunity for momentum buyers.
NVDA's chart has a few interesting patterns.
First, it never closed below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) amid last week's intense...
There are a lot of superlatives about the stock market this week. It's the fastest correction ever, with just six sessions between the S&P 500 hitting a new record high and a 10 percent drawdown.
The VIX illustrates this trend clearly. Its overall level around 47 isn't all that high in the big scheme of things. Volatility hit 50 two years ago and in August of...
Gold miners are the classic "safe haven" sector. Not surprisingly, they've moved higher as coronavirus drives pretty much everything else lower.
Market Vectors Gold Miner ETF is the go-to instrument for most traders, with deep liquidity and very heavy options volume. (GDX averages about 140,000 contracts a day, more than triple the runner-up, Barrick Gold ,...
The coronavirus selloff has hammered almost every corner of the market, aside from precious metals. Most attention has focused on gold and gold miners . But silver has also been on the move.
Each share of iShares Silver Trust controls one ounce of the white metal. It jumped above recent resistance in the $17 - $17.20 area last week, only to pull back and...
Yesterday we focused on Alphabet at the 50-day simple moving average. Today, we'll look at Microsoft.
MSFT has risen steadily since breaking out of a high basing pattern in October. Monday's crash brought it back down to a near-term peak around $168 in mid-January. It also tested the 50-day moving average for the first time in four months.
MSFT is obviously a...
Coronavirus is hammering stocks today, as everyone knows. The disease most directly threatens chip makers, transports, energy and financials. Some corners of tech are less directly impacted… like Alphabet.
Today's drop represents GOOGL's first pullback to its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) since the company broke out to new highs in November and December. It...
International Business Machines has been a boring stock for years, and is still well below its highs from early 2013. But that's been changing in the last month.
First came a strong earnings report on January 21. Profit and revenue both beat estimates, but the real story was strong growth in cloud computing. That suggested IBM is finally moving beyond its legacy...
Pinterest has been making news this year. First, eMarketer said it surpassed Snap as the third-biggest social-media platform in the U.S. The second headline was a strong earnings report on February 6, featuring beats on the top- and bottom lines.
PINS gapped higher on the results and then pulled back -- as you might expect. But then it kept sliding on the...
Square rallied hard after filling a price gap a few weeks ago. Now Jack Dorsey's other company, Twitter , is doing the same thing.
Strong quarterly results on February 6 sent TWTR ripping on heavy volume. In a nutshell, better user monetization and engagement restored confidence in the social-media platform's business over the long term.
The stock has...
