Securities Research Services

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Watching Tech's Head and Shoulders

We are doing our best to stay objective here and look for the bullish case to balance out our current bearish outlook. It's not easy to do however when even after two up days in a row now scans do not produce any long side set ups that don't scream "Risk!" The big story yesterday was the huge follow through lower in the commodities sectors. Oil stocks crashed through support levels on their double top patterns and the metals crushed their last line of support on heavy, heavy volume. This led to what could possibly be a rotation into the tech sector, but if so, it begs a question. If money that is rolling out of commodities is moving into tech, why did tech only experience a weak rally yesterday that was turned back at right shoulder resistance of the head and shoulders patterns we pointed out in yesterday's report? There is a huge amount of money leaving commodities and yet breadth was only slightly positive in the tech sector yesterday and it was negative in the blue chips (more stocks were down in the S&P than were up). All these negatives we keep harping about lately do not mean that the market cannot go up from here. They do probably mean that any upside move is likely to get knocked back down hard though. As mentioned, yesterday's upside move fits in well with the thesis that tech is trading in a head and shoulders formation. Any follow through higher today that sticks into the close would negate this hypothesis. What is very clear is the fact that things are just not real clear in the broader market and with options expiring Friday, it's difficult to trust this market. With so many unknowns, it's better to stay with open shorts and wait in cash with the rest of your money. Note: we would like to get short more commodities. If the sector can experience an oversold bounce here it will be worth looking for entry points. If it just keeps heading lower, we will likely have missed a speeding train lower.

No comments: