Today's Markets

In the "the housing market is nowhere near bottom" file, we have Home Depot's earings which dropped 66%. Oil crossed 129 a barrel (thank God it's not part of core inflation and therefore unimportant). And while Target also missed earnings, Saks and Staples saw increases (but note that Staples increase came from overseas increases rather than increases at US stores). We also saw Iceland get its credit ratings lowered.

Let's go to the chart to see what they say:



On the 5-minute daily chart, notice the clear trend break that occurred today, with prices dropping hard at the open and continuing to drift lower for the rest of the day. This shouldn't be surprising considering oil's price spike and the strong rally the SPY's have been experiencing since the beginning of last week. While a gentler sell-off is always preferred, a harsh sell-off isn't the end of the world.



On the SPY's daily chart, notice the upward trend is still intact. However, also notice the SPYs got to the 200 day SMA and couldn't cross. But also notice the positive SMA picture.

-- The shorter SMAs are higher than the longer SMAs

-- All the shorter SMAs are moving higher, and

-- Prices are still above the shorter SMAs.



Like the SPYs, the QQQQs, sold-off hard today, but would up in a trading pattern during the rest of the day.



But notice the uptrend is still very much intact on the daily chart. Also notice the following positive SMA points:

-- Prices are above all the SMAs

-- The 10 and 20 day SMA have crossed the 200 day SMA

-- The shorter SMAs are greater than the longer SMAs (10 > 20 > 50)

-- All the shorter SMAs are heading higher



The IMMs have been in the middle of a broadening pattern since last Wednesday. While they sold-off today as well, they used the established lower boundary of the broadening pattern as support.



Notice the following positive SMA points on the IWM chart:

-- Prices are above the shorter SMAs

-- The shorter SMAs are greater than the longer SMAs (10 > 20 > 50).

-- All the shorter SMAs are moving higher.

-- The longer-term trend lines are still very much in place.