Today's Markets

The SPYs couldn't hold onto their gains today. They rose until lunch and then fell back towards the close.



On the 5-day chart, notice the SPYs may be bottoming here. There is a deep drop yesterday just before the close in addition to today's action just before the close. The market could be setting itself up for a post employment report bounce (or not).



On the 5-day QQQQ chart, note the exact same situation as the SPYs.



However, the 5-day Russell 200 chart shows a clear downtrend in place.

I want to turn to the Russell 2000 now. Let's assume that the IWMs represent investors risk appetite; the IWM is made up of small cap companies who typically need a strong and growing economy to increase sales and therefore their stock price. If that is a correct assumption, then we have a problem.



The 3-month IWM chart with simple moving averages (SMAs) indicates the longer term trends are now down. The 50 say SMA is heading lower and more importantly, the 200 day SMA is as well.



All of the exponential moving averages are moving lower (EMAs). That means that more recent trading days are pulling the average lower.