Last week's sector update found a mixed Technical Strength picture among the eight S&P 500 groups that I track weekly, with notable bullish short-term trending among health care issues and bearish trending among financials. This week saw continued range bound action, continuing the mixed sector picture. There was some deterioration among consumer staples and financials; energy stocks also remained in a downtrend. Health care stocks weakened, as did tech companies, but both were in uptrends, along with industrial and consumer discretionary names.
With continued commodity weakness, we see little Technical Strength among raw materials and energy issues; indeed, few of the sectors are trending strongly in either direction. Here is the breakdown for this past week, as of Friday's close:
MATERIALS: -20
INDUSTRIAL: 300
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY: 200
CONSUMER STAPLES: -120
ENERGY: -180
HEALTH CARE: 120
FINANCIAL: -360
TECHNOLOGY: 260
INDUSTRIAL: 300
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY: 200
CONSUMER STAPLES: -120
ENERGY: -180
HEALTH CARE: 120
FINANCIAL: -360
TECHNOLOGY: 260
We can see from the chart above that Financial issues remain the weak group, having spent a sustained period in a bearish mode.
I will continue to track trending and market strength/momentum via indicators posted to Twitter before the market open (follow here). This should help us gauge whether the market is likely to stay range bound going into the holiday period, or whether we can sustain a breakout move.
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