Thursday, January 07, 2010

A Look at Some Relative Weakness


If stock sentiment is bullish, you normally look for growth-oriented issues leading the way higher. Speculative sentiment is often drawn to small-cap issues and tech stocks for that reason.

It's in that vein that the recent relative weakness of the NASDAQ 100 (NQ) futures is a fly in the ointment for bulls. Note (above) that we've returned to the late 2009 range in the index, giving a distinct failed look to the start of January breakout move to new highs.

I'll be watching small cap stocks in coming sessions; if the tide is going to rise, you'd expect to see lift among all boats. And when all the boats aren't rising, you start to question the vigor of the tides.
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